Is it weird that I am a Millennial and I related a lot to this? I too find social media marketing confusing, self publishing confusing, everything but actual writing confusing... (And sometimes that is confusing too!) But I get scared by all the ways Gen Z etc. are making it and I feel I have no place anymore.

Thank you for helping me feel less alone! You're right. Writing success is incremental. We might not see it, but I think all the 'kids' making it these days are also based on incremental success. We just can't see it. Maybe they struggled with getting followers until some breakthrough.