My two Sats: With an add blocker one can "watch" (even if one is listening) to youtube videos without creating an account. So friction level is low compared to a service that forces login.

Also depending on the type of podcast, some times there are important visual. Example:

The spiral chart is hard to describe verbally.

To be clear I agree It is sub optimal but maybe there is a future podcast type which is kind of a powerpoint + audio.