Duh!
It hit me on the crapper that people quite simply not wanting to engage is far deeper in the Occam's Razor end zone as an explanation for the lack of engagement than technology not being sufficiently supportive of it, because there's a way when there's a will, and a couple of us demonstrated that magical tech mechanisms are hardly prerequisite to engaging.
It got me wondering if perhaps write.as as it is attracts bloggers looking to get their thoughts before other minds/eyes without the possibility of dwelling on any past aspects thereof, so as to not have engagement eating up precious time/attention/focus from knitting the next offering?
Which, of course, is absolutely fine – although I can imagine engagement attempts in such an environment coming off as anywhere from annoying to offensive, a sort of pathetic coaxing of others to get naked.
I guess I've just never been in such an online place before. To me, the earliest roots of all this had engagement as a primary goal, even when the means were akin to opening a can of paint with a rubber mallet.