Interesting to read about your experiences which pretty much reflect my own. And yes, I'm old school too, which is why most of my releases are albums (6 to date)!
I actually gave up on trying to get the plays after doing all the things you did and more (paid for a photo shoot, sent physical CDs out to reviewers, added T-Shirts to Bandcamp, etc. It's just too much work for very little return imo. For me anyway.

I was hoping by being in a band and playing local gigs it might kick things off a little but no such luck.

So now I just release the music for the ACR community and any other plays are a bonus. It's less stressful that way! :P

Rising Star The brand new Hive NFT game. Play for FREE now! That deserves a !BEER