Yup, this is the way.

Regarding Shorts, I have no YouTube history, but I still get Shorts. I hate them. You must be doing something else to disable them.

Instead of using the YouTube app, I use the website on both my phone and computer. I have userscript setup to hide all shorts and community posts. Can be done easily with a CSS selector which sets it to:

    "display: none !important;"

You get Shorts shown in search and in your subscriptions, but the "Shorts" tab in the mobile app leads to a black page.

Shorts are hell. I use FF Redirector plugin to gently save myself without restricting content, but there are other ways.

Redirect: *youtube.com/shorts/* to: $1youtube.com/watch?v=$2

Install the Freetube client (https://freetubeapp.io), then make the following configuration changes:

  1. In the left navbar, click "Settings > Distraction Free".
  2. Enable the "Subscriptions Page > Hide Subscription Shorts" switch.
  3. Enable the "Channel Page > Hide Channel "Shorts" Tab" switch.