I'm going to maybe be contrarian and say pivoting and being persistent after the pivot were actually probably the smartest moves to make, and I'm going to be co

I'm going to maybe be contrarian and say pivoting and being persistent after the pivot were actually probably the smartest moves to make, and I'm going to be completely speculative and say that maybe there's a chance it was just the strategy and/or execution that was the problem. In my opinion, there's huge demand and little supply for good, comprehensive, credible debunking videos. I also think the fact that someone linked to it wasn't necessarily a fluke: debunking is basically just investigative journalism, and good, accurate, novel investigative journalism is hard to come by and likely to be shared when it's discovered, if it's concerning some topic of interest to many people. I'd even say - if you want to and are truly passionate about it, at least - that you should consider trying it again but take a dramatically different approach to what you choose to investigate and publish. Or perhaps hone your investigative skills and tactics, as well. Doing it on a separate channel might be the best option, though, like you said in another comment.