In my industry after many years and carefully watching competitors I have come to the conclusion that it's "pay to play". If you want customers to see your product and be aware that you exist and that they can buy from you, you have to pay to build the brand and market the brand. As engineers we are focused on building a product. I've done that a few times over. People like the product once they know it exists and what it can do for them. But they don't know about it because I can't invest in marketing. I don't have that 200-300K to blow. My competitors do. They can afford it. Most of them were succesfull in other industries before they got into this one. Or they come from rich families.
It's easy to dismiss the power of marketing and branding and the importance of investing in that, as pure tech founders.