Depends on your goals, depends on your target audience, though this is technically true-

someone like myself however, I prefer to have that small change spent on distrokid so I can publish finished tracks to then show people on a platform that isn't soundcloud. Why? Because it's a better presentation of self- IMHO.

This is personal opinion:
Spotify is more easily accessible in a kind of way for listeners, and it looks more polished. Tell someone you have a soundcloud and it's kinda like yeah so does every other dude who makes shitty little beats on his laptop, tell someone you've got tracks on spotify and they're more likely to actually check it out, I definitely tend to click on spotify links more than I do on soundcloud links, because I naturally expect the product to be more well rounded and polished, it's a slight psychological thing. I'm one person that has that feeling and i'm somewhat aware of that when I see people sharing music- what do you think happens on a large scale? Maybe not everyone feels that way

when youshare a spotify link as opposed to a soundcloud link whether it's on socials or just to your small listening base of friends and family. It also means that if they vibe it and are wanting to share it with others, it has that same level of accessibility, or they're likely to add it to their own playlists and it stays in their repeat- meanwhile soundcloud doesn't have that same presence in a larger scale sense

this whole notion of "getting your music out" isn't enough is one way to think about it- and it can be something you hustle hard on, but organic growth from making genuinely good music first and simply having an accessible platform that you publish too can pay for it self over time, and it can also be a motivator to simply finish more music instead of just dicking around.

In saying that, I do agree that you have to hustle if you really want to get your work heard- that's unavoidable.