Okay, it seems like eight months is not long enough for YouTube to sort out their slooooooowwwwww servers I see! I'd forgotten what a hassle it was to use YouTube on Sundays, with the entire world making videos. Maybe they have one server room full of devoutly Jewish hardware which is unable to work? Needless to say, this is one of the many things on YouTube which I did not miss while I was away. I will now wait until more of the world goes to sleep.
I'm spending the rest of the weekend putting the 'reinstated' intros on all my videos. Not far to go now, but I'm not going to try uploading until the speed comes back. That path leads only to madness!