Are you kidding me? They literally JUST SAID that they were knowingly, expressly choosing to do something that would almost certainly make sure a certain segment of the readership would NOT have access to the story because there wasn't enough engagement. The only way this would be clearer is if the people back in the day also said that not only are they NOT updating the next chapter until they hit the required number of comments but their friends have all already read it.

JFC