I use SponsorBlock and uBlock quite heavily but you're missing out on Home. The recommendations are surprisingly good.

For me, it basically takes a guess what topics and themes I find interesting and pulls content around them. Automatic notifications are also pretty good.

YouTube figured out that I like interviews on a certain channel and nothing else, or Ukraine war updates from another channel but not their regular content. Probably through simple similar audience trick but solid selection nevertheless.

For whatever reason, it cannot apply this knowledge to shorts which are dreadfully bad.