Yes there was. The monetization was why it wasn't medium.com. Friend of a friend is a substack writer. 50k subscribers that pay $10/month for her insights.
I said "except for only the top." With 50k subscribers, presumably this is in the top tier. Similar to medium, the average person who creates a substack blog has to get all the traffic on their own, substakc does not help .
Why do they host it on there then, can't they just get a domain and own their data/content?
It's a blogging platform built around an app , which is like a quasi-social network in its own right.
Some short answers are ease and discoverability. I use Blogger myself after fiddling around some mostly because it was easier (and a bit cheaper) than setting up and hosting something myself.