My anecdotal experience agrees. I cleared my watch history and then all my recommendations changed from being tech related to more pop culture oriented for a few weeks
Its a Lie. I have YT watch history disabled for hmm 2 years now, recommendations "work" just the same.
Disabling it != Removing a single item from the list.
" When you pause history, any videos that you watch while history is paused won't show in history and won’t be used to improve your recommendations."
is a lie
Unless you have history disabled entirely.
Why can't we opt out completely from "recommendations"?