I used to be addicted to youtube, and the most effective method I found to limiting my consumption was using an extension called Unhook. It removes all recommendations and the shorts and trending tabs, so the only videos I can watch are those from channels I'm subscribed to, or videos that I search for.
Not sure if thats the one you use, but it sounds like it. I need to port it to the Edge store, as I now use Edge instead of Chrome.