I think you need to make a distinction between "a business around content marketing" and having content marketing be one of the many marketing channels for gain

I think you need to make a distinction between "a business around content marketing" and having content marketing be one of the many marketing channels for gaining users. Even if you entirely set aside the hope that you'll eventually gain some organic search traffic, content marketing in the business and startup space still typically has a return 10x of what paid does since it tends to be so much more self selecting, shared on social, etc.