Not sure if this fits to your needs, but uBlock Origin lets you block elements directly on the page. It works great for removing the pesky shorts section.
Haven't seen Youtube shorts since.
On top of that, i removed the "suggested videos" on the right side of an already opened video, to avoid the pitfall of continuously moving on to barely related stuff, much like the shorts doomscrolling.
> they need something that keeps working for 20+ years, and that keeps looking the same to those who have to touch it.
I very much agree with this take.
I sometimes find CFML that was written well before I began in software development, and with very few adjustments, it stays safe and easy to use for internal administrative tasks. It is very fast at delivering business value, and very low maintenance for me.
The real fun always begins when someone suggests a rewrite, and realizes to their horror how 25 lines in Coldfusion sometimes become 100+ in other languages.
I believe Brave too, has this feature.