Ugh! Have you tried lossless compression? Not sure which formats YouTube takes, though. I know little about video files. :/
Yeah, upload speeds are historically pretty low. I think the logic is that home users shouldn’t need to upload a lot of large files unless they’re working. In which case, the providers would rather you get on a more expensive business plan. At least, I think that’s why it’s like that. Just making assumptions, though 😛