Depends. It's a good alternative when you don't want to follow people on TikTok. Hank and John Green do shorts, there's a Maine lobsterman who does great shorts, there's a couple of people who do very funny Heaven/Hell skits...
Nah, they're awful. Your explanation is like someone saying, "Nazis are awful," and you saying "Depends. Fritz had me over for dinner and him and his wife are pretty nice, and Hanz is good defense for a game of footie."
Just because there are exceptions to the rule, doesn't make the entire format, as a whole, not awful. The idea, right down to its core of being 1) easily accessible 2) quickly digestible and 3) easy to market with turns it into a party where everyone is jumping around saying "Hey, hey! Look at me! Looook at meeeeeee! Please give me your attention!"
This is why 50% of TikTok users surveyed said that videos over one minute long are stressful for them, it's completely devastated people's attention spans.
But this still ignores the ultimate cardinal sin of video content: forcing the vertical aspect ratio in order to facilitate easier scrolling, even though OUR BINOCULAR VISION IS OPTIMIZED FOR WIDESCREEN VIEWING.