The point about Shorts feeding long-term discovery, rather than only chasing a quick spike, changes what a Short is for. I’d add that the first line of on-screen text can do as much work as the visual hook, and it is cheap to test. I work with AllyHub, and our YouTube Hook Generator is one resource for drafting alternatives: https://allyhub.com/tools/youtube-hook-generator. Do you write Shorts hooks separately from the long-form version?