This probably goes without saying, but the Auto YouTube export settings in Resolve are not good. The footage it renders out is awful compared to right out of the camera. Any tips or tricks?

For what’s it’s worth I’m using a 2.7k timeline and exporting 1080p.

That explains why I can't get a good live stream at 4k.

Da Vinci Resolve is deceiving. You can get a free version, so it must be easy to use right?

Well no, it is still a professional editing and grading package, and it has very powerful delivery options, but you really do need to know what you are doing to get the best out of it. You can select the YouTube preset, but it seems to be designed to suit the needs of people shooting material on their phone. I shoot in 4K, I create a 4K timeline, edit in 4K, grade in 4K and deliver in 4K and when uploaded to Youtube, it looks reasonably OK.

You need to carefully explore the delivery options, there are many combinations of settings in that section of Resolve that affect the output quality. My finished videos are relatively large and take a longish time to upload to Youtube, but the results are worth it. Always look at the file size produced, it is a fair indication of how good the finished product will look.

As a non professional user of DaVinci Resolve, I fully agree with Geebax that the Delivery Page options are not obvious. I use custom settings for my own use (not for YouTube); you really need to explore the options.

I know this is an old post, but still wondering the same, some users say best to use a high quality video render however I noticed many artifacts and jumps with a 30mbps bit rate.
Yesterday I downloaded the YouTube processed version which it was 40MB as opposed to the 400MB original file size (2 min video), and the lower resolution one looks much better in my phone and tablet.