A person cannot short sub penny trash nor would any broker do so for the purpose of shorting. You have failed to distinguish differences in taking a position and liquidity, two entirely different functions. Positions are a rare occurence, .00001% of trade transaction in the OTC are positions taken. While liquidity as we have all seen posted regularly on a daily basis on just about every sub penney stock board, Short Volume can see 100% of volume in a single stock. So what? Its settled in a matter of seconds on a separate leg, we see that on the FTD reports as the result is a nuetral position at the end of the period.
Pull up GME in an FTD report and you will see a continuos aggregate of shares in an unsettled status for days, compare to an OTC stock and you will find there are no comparisons, it is night and day. Most sub penny trash has zero aggregate, and even if there is an aggregate it cannot be distinguished as short as long position trades fail due to imcomplete delivery of either cash or shares in some cases.