Yes but you have to go and do that. GP was making it sound like GGP was watching crazy uncle videos to make the algorithm do that, when in reality, one errant click will pollute your suggestions unless you know to go and delete it.
New prank on someone that left their laptop unlocked. Open YouTube to something they hate and then close it before they get back.
You do need to take care in pruning videos you don't normally watch. Either remove from watch history, mark as not interested, or just thumbs downing the video.
But at least you still have that ability compared to most platforms.
You can still thumbs down a video. You don't get any feedback nor metrics from it, but you can still do it.
I haven't paid close attention to the effects, because I don't thumbs down too many videos. But it did feel like I generally don't get that channel as much after thumbing down a video from my recommended feed.
New prank on someone that left their laptop unlocked. Open YouTube to something they hate and then close it before they get back.