I sincerely prefer to write a well-written story, which has less than 1,000 readings. It’s not much, yes, but I’m a person who puts quality above all else. Even though an author’s goal is to see that many people enjoy his stories. But the thing is that Episode has an audience that loves cliché, and that’s why the trending section is full of these stories.
The other problem is the perception that differs from the author to the reader. Sometimes there are authors who want to write their stories the way they imagined them, but are obligated to give in to the demands of their readers to satisfy them. Like I’ve seen a lot of people claim that there has to be more drama, jealousy, spicy things in the stories, otherwise they’re automatically boring.
Personally these are things I hate. I have no problem reading stories that contain drama, but when it gets too much and all the episodes show how ridiculous and immature the characters are, jumping to conclusions all the time, and there is no character development, I don’t read them anymore. So in reality it all depends on the reader’s taste.
But if one day I’m going to write a story, I think I’ll choose my judgment before my readers’ because in the end, it’s MY plot, MY characters, and the vision I had for MY story. However, that doesn’t mean that I won’t listen to those who decide to give me some feedback. As you said, finding a balance is important, but I will certainly not be shy about continuing my story the way I planned it.
That’s my opinion 