You nailed it - it is dilution.
From experience, the numbers you posted as "shorts" are usually new shares entering the market.
The real "shorts" are the monthly figures.
Seen it a bunch of times - peeps scream "shorts" and use those numbers as proof yet, at the end of the month, the O/S has increased and the promised "short squeeze" never, ever appears.
Why is the TA gagged?
If shorts were keeping q down, wouldn't it behoove the company to publish the actual SS and catch those sinister "shorts" with their pants down?
But, alas, Q management won't.
Because there are no shorts.