In general, I find that there's way too much obsession with engagement/monetization/etc. Of course, it helps if you already have a well-paying job. Nonetheless, most people don't expect to monetize their hobbies but somehow, at least in the context of somewhere like HN, a lot of people seem to expect that any personal project has to be a side hustle.

As to other comments about "having something to say," I'd just observe that many of the earliest blogs and proto-blogs (think Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manner column in Byte) were basically just journals. Not everything has to be great thought.