I think it's really hard work to build up a YouTube account from scratch these days. But that probably also applies to all other networks.
From what I hear, just as you described, shorts get the most views or subscribers. I find that a bit strange because I hardly ever consume them on YouTube. 😂
As long as you're having fun, keep it up. I wish you every success!
The requirement for shorts to monetize is like 10m views versus 1000 watch hours. So either my shorts reach 10m views or my non shorts reach 1000 hours that's when I get monetized.
But my guess is I think the key is the tags you put because you'll be suggested by YouTube itself on related searches.
I don't watch shorts too before but I think it's true you have to capture the attention of peeps in the first minute. But now I'm doing shorts I somehow can whip up stories in under one minute