I think what changed over the years in the "product discussions" space/is that the sentiment has shifted from "users will come to us" to "we must go to our users". Platforms like Twitter (surprising as it is), Discord, Reddit etc. where a user already is dissuades a lot of products from hosting their own forums.

It's just quicker for a user to join a Discord community or tweet/DM a question where they already have an account. Even with things like OAuth2, the mental burden of creating a new account is there. Not to mention learning how to use the new platform. And the total gain after all the effort is trivial.

I think at this point in time, it's not reasonable to ask users to sign up to your own private platform unless you have a huge and loyal following. Users have become lazy due to the abundance of alternatives.

When I get an issue/bug/question, the first thing I check is if they have an issue tracker. Preferably GitHub. After that comes their various social accounts; Discord, Twitter, Reddit etc. If none of those work out I would most probably ditch the software. Reaching out via custom channels is cumbersome.

With that being said, this looks really cool although "delightfully simple" won't be an objective feeling among your users. Good job none the less! I wish you the best.