I see. I don't believe there's currently any way to filter kiosk content by type like that. You could open a feature request for it on GitHub if you'd like (assuming one doesn't already exist).

Hide the 'Shorts' channel tab:
Settings > Content > Channel tabs > Uncheck 'Shorts'

Hide shorts in feed/subscriptions:
Settings > Content > Fetch channel tabs > Uncheck 'Shorts'

Your question has been mostly answered, though if you're wondering why v0.26.0 is missing as well, it's because of some issues with reproducible builds that should hopefully have been resolved now.

I thought the app was being rewritten and that this version was only gonna receive fixes until the rewrite is over.

That's correct. The "New" and "Improved" changes are mostly from pull requests that were opened before the rewrite announcement, or are important quality of life improvements.

Changelog

New

• Add comment replies
• Allow reordering playlists
• Show playlist description and duration
• Allow resetting settings

Improved

• [Android 13+] Restore custom notification actions
• Request consent for update check
• Allow notification play/pause while buffering
• Reorder some settings

Fixed

• [YouTube] Fix comments not loading, plus other fixes and improvements
• Solve vulnerability in settings import and switch to JSON
• Various download fixes
• Trim search text

Changelog

New

• Add comment replies
• Allow reordering playlists
• Show playlist description and duration
• Allow resetting settings

Improved

• [Android 13+] Restore custom notification actions
• Request consent for update check
• Allow notification play/pause while buffering
• Reorder some settings

Fixed

• [YouTube] Fix comments not loading, plus other fixes and improvements
• Solve vulnerability in settings import and switch to JSON
• Various download fixes
• Trim search text

Changelog

New

• Add comment replies
• Allow reordering playlists
• Show playlist description and duration
• Allow resetting settings

Improved

• [Android 13+] Restore custom notification actions
• Request consent for update check
• Allow notification play/pause while buffering
• Reorder some settings

Fixed

• [YouTube] Fix comments not loading, plus other fixes and improvements
• Solve vulnerability in settings import and switch to JSON
• Various download fixes
• Trim search text

Sorry, I didn't see that you were on Mastodon, that explains it.

Yes, you've already commented that and it's a good suggestion. Why did you need to write it twice?

Version 0.26.1 (and 0.26.0) hasn't been published on F-Droid yet because it couldn't be reproduced (meaning that the app as built by F-Droid wasn't completely identical to the one published by the NewPipe team). The problem is tracked here:
https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/10746

It's in the current build cycle, so give it 1-2 days.

Where do you find images that you could get a link to? I don't understand that feature

The app now shows links to images that NewPipe fetches like thumbnails, avatars and banners. You can find them in the video descriptions and in the 'About' channel tab.

The ability to download playlists is not introduced in this release. There is an open feature request for it that is tracked here: NewPipe#5482
In the meantime, you can use NewPipe in conjunction with Seal to download playlists.

Changelog

New:

• Support channel tabs
• Select image quality
• Get URLs to all images

Improved:

• Accessibility of player interfaces
• Better audio selection for video-only downloads
• Option to include playlist and video names to shared playlist content

Fixed:

• [YouTube] Fix getting like count
• Fix player not responding popups and crashes
• Selection of wrong languages in language picker
• Player audio focus was not respecting mute
• Playlist item addition occasionally not working

Changelog

New:

• Support channel tabs
• Select image quality
• Get URLs to all images

Improved:

• Accessibility of player interfaces
• Better audio selection for video-only downloads
• Option to include playlist and video names to shared playlist content

Fixed:

• [YouTube] Fix getting like count
• Fix player not responding popups and crashes
• Selection of wrong languages in language picker
• Player audio focus was not respecting mute
• Playlist item addition occasionally not working

Changelog

New:

• Support channel tabs
• Select image quality
• Get URLs to all images

Improved:

• Accessibility of player interfaces
• Better audio selection for video-only downloads
• Option to include playlist and video names to shared playlist content

Fixed:

• [YouTube] Fix getting like count
• Fix player not responding popups and crashes
• Selection of wrong languages in language picker
• Player audio focus was not respecting mute
• Playlist item addition occasionally not working

Since Whatbox allows you to SSH into your seedbox, you can setup slskd manually (root not required) and access its WebUI remotely.

YouTube views are not counted in NewPipe and neither are Peertube views, but there is an open feature request for it here: https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/3092

This tutorial is pretty good as an introduction to modding APKs:
https://old.reddit.com/r/ApksApps/comments/oat3qu/tutorial_how_to_modify_apk_files_for_premium/
The example used is unlocking premium features but the principles are the same for disabling DRM.

https://piped.video/watch?v=jNiKU4-ybBc

In the future, you can just manually replace www.youtube.com with piped.video to view it on Piped, since the rest of the URL is identical between Youtube and Piped.