Shepherding is when some behavior is encouraged by being made easy/rewarded, or by other behavior being made harder/punished. So shepherding absolutely happens

Shepherding is when some behavior is encouraged by being made easy/rewarded, or by other behavior being made harder/punished. So shepherding absolutely happens in every aspect of life - systems move toward low energy states, water flows downhill and living creatures tend to follow the path of least resistance. When parents do it, we call it parenting. When governments or companies do it (via taxes/subsidies or pricing), we call it nudging. When groups do it, we call it socialization. It's a really useful tool to analyze systems and organizations with - not by looking at what they make possible, but also by what they encourage and discourage - most of the time, the latter are what really matter (the average case is usually what determines the long-term impact of something, not the best or the worst case). When Netflix has auto-play at the end of a stream, they shepherd you toward binging. When Animal Crossing has things you need to wait wall-clock time for, they encourage you not to binge. When free-to-play games come with loot boxes, they don't force you to do anything, but they might still be shepherding gambling-like behavior.