Please. Even 1% of 300k is a lot of free targeted advertising. And yes that's what it is, even if you don't want to admit it. It's exactly the kind of promotional bootstrapping that OP was asking about and you pretended you didn't have to do it until we dragged it out of you.

I didn't pretend anything. If anything, I'm just an idiot, or I forgot. Don't assume malice where incompetence is sufficient to explain it. That said, the most basic, uninteresting tiktok videos get 300 views, and if you try even just a little, it's not hard to get 3k (the 1% you mentioned) and extremely common. Which sets the bar pretty low. And that's the same amount I was able to reach in my lives.