Is this too niche?

So I've been reaching out to potential customers of my product - community managers/owners, recently and have been getting the following feedback:

• This sounds good but isn't something we are looking to do at the moment
• Our community isn't engaged enough to need this at the moment
• We have other revenue channels such as Patreon so wouldn't want to do this

The idea is a revenue channel targeted at the community niche, where the community owner would set it up and this provides a better service for the community members than just ads or donations.

I'm working to find product-market fit before I build, but I'm wondering whether the idea is too niche, relying on a community being at the right stage in the growth cycle for it to work, and does require more effort to run than simple ads, sponsorship or a Patreon set up. In the long run, it can be much more profitable and benefit the community more.

I've been talking to podcast owners, as they tend to have large and engaged communities. Are there other community types that you would recommend?

Has anyone been in the same position and made it work? When do you know whether to bin the idea and move on?