The average person browsing for Koikatsu content on Pixiv immediately turns around and goes looking at something else when they see a creator's content is 100% paywalled. No one is spending 20-30-40 bucks without getting a preview and an idea of what the content is like.
I'm a sicko on pixiv
I like to see the 4 tags used and compare the results, the impressions of each post (the most interesting ones), the interactions, the likes, and that kind of thing.
キャラ配布(コイカツ)
MOD配布(コイカツ)
衣装配布(コイカツ)
シーン配布(コイカツ!)
It's always the same pattern:
Posts with no tags but コイカツ (and its variants): poor metrics.
Posts with any of the 4 tags mentioned with paid content: mediocre metrics.
Posts with any of the 4 tags mentioned with free content: good metrics.
I see more interactions on posts with one of those tags and free content than in the other two scenarios. There are special cases when the Ugoira tag is used and from a well-known creator (an example Tachumi; in the most recent Rias post, got 669 bookmarks, 1,117 likes, and 9,125 views). Can't give examples for Sandkoi because acc ban, maybe sharing patreon links?
It's an extension for tagging users, I'm near to do spreadsheets and do some sampling, but I'm only doing this thing for the meme. Maybe I'll do it someday so I don't have to pull things out of my ass asking you to believe me, so trust me bro so to speak, but my point is, the way he's doing paid content is shooting himself in the foot. Even on his Patreon, the content for paying users only gets between 0 and 3 total interactions (likes, comments), and the public posts get between 0 and 20 total interactions. People want to see, like on Tachumi, paid SD content, and his content explodes in visibility, but of course, our other friend barely has 1k followers (on Twitter) but gets interactions as if he had 300. Damn, I had those numbers years ago when I only had like 62 followers.