Well I don't know how it is nowadays because so many creators have flocked there and I could absolutely imagine that thirst traps are so numerous and popular that the algorithm cant do a good job anymore. To be fair I joined more than 3 years ago "to check what my kids was raving about" and remember how I regularly was amazed on what the algorithm dug up for me, funny interesting content from people that seemed genuine. I still get that feeling but maybe not as much. And I never had any issues of watching too much either. It's just my kind of social media.

But I also have a couple of times where I fucked up the algo by liking the wrong video and having to mindfully steer it back on track again. So it's not magic, ofc.