The snap was vaapi was a short-lived experiment, it seems.
You didn't say what PPA you are using but you may have meant these.
beta: https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+archive/ubuntu/chromium-beta
I use the dev ppa.
dev: https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+archive/ubuntu/chromium-dev
then play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MpUj-Aua48 in max resolution (2160p)
My user CPU is < 10% (Thinkpad t480) so that's definitely hardware decoded.
This integrated graphics has VP9 hardware support, so I don't have extensions forcing H264.
If I duplicate the tab so the video is running twice, user CPU is still <10%.
in chrome://media-internals/ find the entry for the current player(s), click on the row and scroll down to see the Player Properties -> Video Decoder
Example from my machine:
render_id: 248
player_id: 41
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
frame_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MpUj-Aua48
frame_title: YouTube
surface_layer_mode: kAlways
url: blob:https://www.youtube.com/a7e04d98-3dd9-45f0-88b5-c0c32b4c1fcd
info: Selected video track: []
pipeline_state: kPlaying
found_audio_stream: true
audio_codec_name: opus
duration: 1536.001
found_video_stream: true
video_codec_name: vp9
event: PLAY
audio_dds: false
audio_decoder: FFmpegAudioDecoder
is_platform_audio_decoder: false
video_dds: false
video_decoder: MojoVideoDecoder
is_platform_video_decoder: true
audio_buffering_state: BUFFERING_HAVE_ENOUGH
height: 2160
width: 3840
video_buffering_state: BUFFERING_HAVE_ENOUGH
for_suspended_start: false
pipeline_buffering_state: BUFFERING_HAVE_ENOUGH
video_decoder: MojoVideoDecoder is a sign of hardware decoding.
In contrast, under Chrome: (User CPU as high as 40%, fans running)
render_id: 15
player_id: 44
origin_url: https://www.youtube.com/
frame_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MpUj-Aua48
frame_title: 4K Video Relaxing Ultra HD TV Test 2160p 20 minutes - YouTube
surface_layer_mode: kAlways
url: blob:https://www.youtube.com/ebbda754-a09d-4d1f-a497-933d97ff34db
info: Effective playback rate changed from 0 to 1
pipeline_state: kPlaying
found_audio_stream: true
audio_codec_name: opus
found_video_stream: true
video_codec_name: vp9
audio_dds: false
audio_decoder: FFmpegAudioDecoder
is_platform_audio_decoder: false
video_dds: false
video_decoder: VpxVideoDecoder
is_platform_video_decoder: false
event: PLAY
seek_target: 40.91651
audio_buffering_state: BUFFERING_HAVE_ENOUGH
height: 2160
width: 3840
video_buffering_state: BUFFERING_HAVE_ENOUGH
for_suspended_start: false
pipeline_buffering_state: BUFFERING_HAVE_ENOUGH
duration: 1536.001