Doug,

My understanding is that the uploads are videos not previously published on YouTube, while the playlist is meant to assemble videos already posted on YouTube by 'Catters.

The "no views" issue is a bug with YouTube -- it just takes a minute to tally a view. I think it has something to do with how they keep track of view statistics, but that's just speculation.

The benefit of being a subscriber is that you would get notified via email when a video is posted (if you choose, though there are other settings) and that it makes the account and its new videos easier to find in the future. Rather than going here and finding the thread and then finding the link, you can simply type in youtube's address and then go to your subscriptions page.