alt Hacker NewsSubscriptions and even viewing history(?!) pull shorts out of order and place them at the top.
Hell, many times I launch YouTube and it immediately starts playing a short, no interaction required. And I have "show touches" on, so I know it's not a phantom tap or something, it's doing it all on its own.
YouTube pushes shorts insanely hard.
I wonder if they are doing some A/B testing on this. I see shorts about once a month or so, which is when the "not interested" option runs its course. Other than that, they don't push it to me at all, and the app has certainly never started auto playing a short when I've opened it.
I've also never watched a short, or if I did I immediately removed it from my watch history. I do keep that trimmed with prejudice, because the algorithm is desperate to show me something other than what I normally watch.