I've started a podcast in the last three months that has grown to 25K listens/month. Our listeners come thru owned social media channels, so I don't need anything more from Apple other than a publishing platform and listening app. Amd there are alternatives if Apple fucks that up - such as SoundCloud.

We publish on iTunes through Libsyn as well as SoundCloud. Libsyn and SoundCloud provide analytics. It's not a paid podcast, but Patreon seems like one way to achieve that.

As a content creator I can't control what the platforms do. My best strategy is to diversify.