Why are you guys still on Etsy? Serious answers only.

EDIT: Wow, lots of responses! I wanted to say, too, that I'm not trying to diminish or undermine anyone's success on the platform. I didn't have a great experience in the second half of things, but I'm glad this many people (and certainly more) are. Also-- For clarification: I started selling starting at early 2020 (April, I think?) to September 2023. I came back in March 2024. I realize that means more or less the same thing as far as number of sellers and site traffic, however, thought I'd put it here for clarification.

100% serious, and looking for honest input. Sharing my (crappy) story to contribute to the discussion, but this is my negative experience coming back. So please keep that in mind.

Back in 2020 I saw high sales numbers. I had to take a break for my health in 2023, and in 2024 I started up again. Tried to make it work, but nothing budged. I lost money all last year, had no engagement, and I recently shut down my store.

Everything was so much worse, in my opinion, to the point where I couldn't even function on the site. It feels like a completely different service. Charges, algorithm problems, no support from staff, and the hold on funds and processing? At first I decided to stick around and tolerate the bad parts of the service because of the exposure Etsy gets and the name recognition of the site, but my store was getting no views.

Not just no sales, no VIEWS. No exposure. People weren't even looking, let alone coming to bookmark the items or wait for sales. That's what a lot of people did with my products, and that was fine. They marked it as a favorite, waited for 20% off, and made a purchase. Perfect.

This go-around, I have been completely invisible. I had a very niche product, not a lot of competition, and I greased the SEO as much as I could. I even paid for Etsy Ads, in amounts both high and low. Free shipping. Still, nothing. I went from thousands of views every day to 2 on rare occasion. I started branching out, made other products in case the market for my genre had somehow died off over a year's time, but still. Nothing.

I also want to mention it again, that at a time I WAS successful. High turnover rate, lots of visibility for the genre. I was happy with my sales and my customers. I had great business and I was very satisfied.

I closed my store, and I'm on other platforms. I'm doing okay, it's new, but I keep thinking about my situation with Etsy and it's still driving me nuts. I'm trying to understand what makes it worth it for other people. So why are you still here, serious answers only. Is it the money? The exposure of new customers? The return of old customers? Are you name-loyal? What is it?

Thank you for your time and input.