Distribution is a challenge, but there is also much prior art for how to solve it. From what I can tell you didn't do any of those things. Regular product update changelogs are what inspire trust that a product as critical as a browser will stick around for the long term. There's also an expectation that something like a browser is open-source and on Github, where it's very easy to see release history and how actively developed the project is. After all, you don't seem to have the institutional backing that would justify a closed-source browser.

Without any of that, there's no reason for people to just click download on an untrusted website and then use that software for the kind of sensitive tasks that are commonplace inside a web browser. Like it or not, you have to consider the user's perspective here.