This is true for literally every giant app/site. Is it "telling" that everyone thinks Youtube is full of conspiracy theory videos? Or that Twitter is a cesspool of outrageous political commentary? Of course you can shield yourself from it somewhat, and maybe the biggest accounts are not cesspools at all (Cristiano Ronaldo or whatever). The point remains that the content is low-level and the algorithm encourages engagement by the lowest common denominator.
Especially with those two, yes, what you are recommended and who you subscribe to or follow is heavily in your hands. Stop interacting with the content you so much despise. It's not even "shield yourself from it somewhat", you can totally avoid such content. It's very much telling me more about the person than the platform, if they're logged in.
However, without logging in YouTube does tend to suggest the most popular content in the region, but in the US that's mostly just bad prank channels, pop music and some major US news channels.