I see a lot of mentions here of the US embargo as if it's the only factor in why Cuba is so poor.

Unfortunately, it appears to be mostly misinformation. Noah Smith lays out quite well why Cuba's poor state is mainly due to poor policy of the single party state: https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/why-cuba-is-having-an-economic...

Additionally, just skimming the wiki page about Cuba's economy points out how false the embargo narrative is: Cubas top export partners are China, Spain, Netherlands, and Germany. Cuba's top import partners are: Spain, China, Italy, Canada, Brazil, and... The US.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Cuba

It's ironic that there's a comment here supporting the misinformation about the embargo that points out how this state of affairs lasts because of manufacturing consent while it itself appears to be a result of manufacturing consents in the theme of "America Bad"