Not that any of this matters, but they did do their own domain registration it looks like, through Squarespace. Check whois. They just have it pointed at Substack right now presumably because they don’t want to invest the resources in a whole web dev or admin team.

But again, it doesn’t matter. The whole issue of “are they associated with blogs” or “who is their DNS registration processed by” is a stupid waste of time to talk about, created only by your inability to admit any error. They are a reliable source (as far as I can tell at least), and only someone casting about for irrelevant reasons to pretend they are not because they’re dug into that position would try to claim otherwise.

Just as general advice, being willing to reverse yourself when new information comes to light makes you more credible. Definitely not less. It increases your authority level, because people will take you seriously because it means you take yourself and your own statements seriously, and shows you want to get them right. Not that you’re just saying whatever and then stubbornly refusing to hear anything different. I think you should try it. Although, of course, it’s up to you.