It wants to justify its inflated viewership numbers under this questionable metric — basically comparing itself to YouTube cat videos — but also wants to be taken seriously and compete at the Oscars and Golden Globes and Emmy awards, alongside TV shows judged by a completely different metric.
Netflix knows perfectly well this is not how most TV shows and movies record viewers.
And then there’s whatever other streamers like Amazon and now Disney+ might be doing, since they tend not to publicly share viewership numbers.
But Netflix seems to want to have its cake and eat it too.