> I think encoding and storage are both quite expensive. You want to encode videos that are likely to be watched in the most efficient ways possible to reduce

> I think encoding and storage are both quite expensive. You want to encode videos that are likely to be watched in the most efficient ways possible to reduce network bandwidth usage, and every video needs at least some encoding. The minimum possible expenditure on encoding is "we require videos to be encoded like so; here's our help page on how you can do that". It's not even slightly expensive.