LIE
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.
I don’t mean to doubt you, but are you sure that none of your 100+ subscribed channels have ever uploaded a short? Note that shorts aren’t currently visible in NewPipe. You are of course correct that it could be caused by a different reason that is currently not known, though. If that’s the case, it’s usually a good idea to write a comment on the GitHub issue, but I understand that you might not want to do that.
I do think it’s weird that this feature hasn’t been added yet, though, as it seems pretty simple to implement. I’d write it myself, but NewPipe doesn’t accept contributions for new features at the moment, which is kind of annoying.