Well, that's just it. My Solid State Streams are getting like 20-30 CCV, not 3 (except the ones where I don't really have a guest or topic). That's still itty bitty numbers but it was the game streams where I got 3 CCV, if I was lucky - usually it was closer to zero. People are voting with their eyeballs and it's not necessarily what I wanted them to vote for but I still enjoy it and it feels better to have some growth rather than none so I'm letting myself be led in that direction. I believe it's the wrong path to take if I want a future with a corpo. But that was probably never in the cards anyway.
I'd actually argue that collabing frequently is super damaging to growth. They take your attention away from chat which means new faces coming in to say hello get ignored. Not to say you can't collab and talk to chat, but then that goes into the whole "collab etiquette" bullshit. Community engagement is crucial. Tons of replies to chat, games that let chat interact, or even submission oriented streams. Collabs can be good to introduce friends communities to your content, but I would never rely on it as a for sure way to get new members. I'd say raids are a pretty good source of potential growth, and a good way to get those are from raiding others around your size or streaming around when your friends are ending theirs.
I always notice lower numbers when I do collabs. Like it nearly cuts my stream average in half.
Unfortunately everyone stagnates. That's just part of the battle. The best thing you can do is be grateful for the one person who will start frequenting your community and over time they'll build up. Even just one new member is a big feat in itself. Sorry to ramble at you, I just get the ick when collabs are always suggested as like THE way to grow.
I WILL say, though, channels who want to focus on a group dynamic should do interview focused contents because every VTuber/Streamer loves to talk about themselves and I have seen channels who make that their focus really climb. Maybe you could add a twist to it though and include some sort of drinking game during the interview, or straight up copy that one hot sauce thing or whatever.
Production also matters a lot too. Could add moments where you play someone's clips when they come on and kinda turn it into a whole ass show. I'm also just super insane and ambitious to a fault so I could keep rambling. If you ever want to talk more on this or whatever I'd love to help in any way I can. DMs are open !
Regardless, I'm wishing you the best.
(Also 20-30 is really good for a dude, so bravo)