Does "building in public" actually help, or is it just extra work that makes you feel productive?

I've tried the build-in-public thing a few times. Sharing milestones, posting screenshots, writing little updates. And honestly? I'm not sure it ever moved the needle. A few likes, a couple of "this looks cool" replies, zero meaningful signups.

I see others do it and they seem to get traction from it. But I can't tell if that's because they have an existing audience, or because their updates are genuinely interesting, or because they've just been doing it consistently for years.

For anyone who's actually seen build-in-public convert into users or revenue: what was the specific thing that worked? Was it a particular format, a platform, a frequency? Or is it mostly just a slow compounding thing that only pays off over a long time?