I'm 100% convinced that these 'show fewer' options are there for dark-pattern reasons. They are sprinkled throughout Facebook and LinkedIn as well. My hypothesis is that companies put them there to give consumers the idea that they have any control at all over their "feed." But if they actually try to use them, they discover the options don't actually do anything, and resign themselves to whatever the algorithm feeds them.
I clicked the "show fewer shorts" button on youtube for a while--they'd come back every 2-3 weeks, but then I'd click it again. Then I tried a different tactic: as soon as I saw a short in my "recommendations" I closed youtube and didn't return for at least 24 hours. I only had to do that about three times and I haven't seen shorts in my recommendations for at least 6 months now.
It's purely there to provide a signal to the oxygen waster product manager who is pushing the obnoxious "feature" in the first place. Their KPIs are not only "positive" engagement with the feature but also lack of "negative" engagement such as clicking the "show fewer" button. It otherwise has zero user-facing impact.
The phrasing alone proves it's a dark pattern. At this point, I think we need some good-guy-AI to fight the algorithms, dark patters, and bad-guy-AI. It should also do everything it can to discourage the bad guys from even trying to implement them...
