So you could say that by not advertising it, for risk of competition, you're missing out on potential revenue too?

I may be wrong, but my assumption is that you are assuming putting your story on something like indie hackers is a lost marketing opportunity.

But I'd say a large percentage of successful small saas products are very niche and would not benefit in the least from talking about it in a public forum.

In my case, none of my customers would be reading anything like indie hackers so I have no reason to get the word out through those channels. It would just invite competition without returns.

If your product does not target entrepreneurs, then you're not really missing much, other than stroking your ego.

I think the main benefit for those businesses would be the seo value. Relevant, high PA links are hard to come by these days...