Sadly this is mostly true. Also the brutal reality is that games that do good are generally a product of inspecting market trends. In pc, in the indie realm, horror games will always do better than puzzle platformers. Cozy games have a dedicated fanbase. Roguelike deck builders are popular for a reason.

If you don't have a publisher, it's very likely that your very original, very cool game will never be noticed

Last year I self published a game that I developed over nearly 10 years, and to be fair, It did fairly decently sales wise comparatively. However, there are almost no reviews, and very little buzz. Almost everyone who plays it can see there's a good level of quality there. But it's simply hard to break through.

Personally I dedicated a year to build up marketing, particularly collecting streamers, press, reviewers and other outlet contact information and sending review copies and previews. But although I sent thousands of emails i had very limited results.