>When visiting a YouTube channel, there's no link to follow it in a feed reader, no "add feed" button, nothing.

There is literally a bell which you can set it so all videos get sent to your notification feed.

>But when that mission starts bleeding into the feeds of users who don't want it, it becomes a big problem.

Most people love shorts. It had extremely fast growth and continues to get a ton of engagement. Not wanting to see shorts is a small minority. It is disingenuous to pretend that no one wanted shorts when engagement is though the roof with the product.