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"?