I'm no expert but I don't think it's the case,, let me explain according to my experience...
I think ranking works according on how popular the video is and the SEO you use, meaning tags and all that. For a video to go up you'll need something people are looking for plus a couple of thousands of views. I have uploaded 45 videos in 3,5 months and I always promoted my videos the same way, yes you can affect your watch time and analytics if people only watch a few seconds and they leave but if you are small channel you still need those few seconds to at least attract some new people that maybe will subscribe. With my 45 videos, I use tube buddy to see the rankings of some of them,, some are top 1 meaning is the first result you will see and some of them I don't think they appear in the first page, so long story short imo, ranking depends on the SEO you use and the amount of views your video gets so if it's a popular one it will be on the top.
If you search, "mission impossible parachute pubg mobile" or "speed bug pubg mobile", my video is the first result and it only got there... not because I promoted it, but because people search for that term, they watched the video, they liked it, they shared it and then YouTube starts recommending the video to everyone so it will get more views.
Hope it helps, and again I'm no expert so probably I'm wrong but I'm just sharing my personal experience
