The engineering managers get directed by corporate executives to implement a feature like this. If the engineering manager resists or protests they won't be meeting there kpi target. there are plenty of other people to fill the role.

depends on the lost revenue - cost of doing business/updating the code.

Because simply by going to the website, Google is automatically making money off of you due to how intrusively they spy on your behavior 24/7 (unless you're in the very small minority that takes extensive effort to stay private online and on your phone). Google is showing me ads all the fucking time, and now they want to force even more ads every 5 minutes or less on YouTube videos (ads on YT now are far more intrusive and frequent than even 5 years ago). For them to say, "You either consume even more targeted ads or we're banning you," is some weird quasi-hostage level shit.

"But how can Google pay for YouTube if you're blocking ads!?!?" Dude, YouTube makes hundreds of millions in PROFIT every year, they're fine if some ads during videos are missed. Like I said, simply going to their website makes them money because they harvest data across all of their dozens of platforms and services. Don't suck Google's dick, they are not your friend. YouTube just has a monopoly on user created videos. If there were a viable alternative, I'd happily jump to that in a heartbeat and even pay like $5/mo for it.