When you're in the Subscriptions tab of the YouTube app, there is only one horizontal line dedicated to shorts. In the Home tab, only two horizontal lines are dedicated to Shorts. After that, as you continue scrolling, they never come up again.

I think it's a bit dramatic to jump to words like "dark pattern" just because YouTube dared to suggest some content in one place in the interface.

If anything, YouTube's Subscriptions tab is one of the most user-respecting pieces of social media out there. It only shows you your subscriptions, and it is chronological.