Thanks for publishing the ledger with dates. One thing worth separating in the numbers: a new page usually takes weeks to get indexed and longer to rank, so early zero-reader results on platforms without their own audience often measure discoverability rather than quality. On a small site I run, the pages that drew any stranger traffic were the ones answering one narrow, specific question, not general writing. Have you checked whether the Substack and your other pieces are actually indexed (a site: search or Search Console)? That would tell you whether zero readers means nobody saw it or nobody could find it.