Featured topic?

Could you expand on the definition/logic of Featured Topics. I am trying to ‘shape’ what posts will appear on my homepage on day 1 (these have been seeded by the admins).

The featured view certainly include the pinned posts but seems to (randomly?) select other non-pinned posts for inclusion ( if no pinned posts are in the category?).

Note I am not trying to add Featured Topics to top of page as per How to add a featured topic list to your Discourse homepage. I am simply trying to control what presents under the desktop category page style/Categories with Featured Topics view.