Not sure what you mean with "completely disables it". I have watch history disabled and still see shorts in search results or subscriptions results https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions

Turning off Watch History only disables shorts on the main page, not in search results or the side-bar. It's a good start but incomplete solution.

If you click on one though and go to swipe (unless it's in your subscriptions) it doesn't allow you to "scroll". You can watch them when necessary but it's impossible to get sucked into an infinite feed.

It’s not complete but it does limit them quite a bit