I am of the personal belief that retail buying and selling has little effect on the day to day movements of stocks; dark pools are used to grab that buying, and every few months, around quarterly futures expirations, a portion of that pent-up buying pressure gets released.
I have such a corrupted mindset. I think you are half way right. If retail (or PFOF brokerages) puts upwards pressure on a stock then that gets put on dark pools. If retail sells….then that’s subjected to the lit exchange.