Followers are usually the last to lose you
Timeline delivery to your own followers generally keeps working during a visibility filter. That is why a restricted account can still collect replies from its regulars while views collapse: the people who already follow you find you, and nobody else does.
This also explains the confusing dashboards. Engagement per follower barely moves while absolute impressions fall off a cliff — nothing is wrong with the content, the discovery layer above it is missing.
Non-followers lose you first
Search, type-ahead suggestions, reply threads, quote posts and the For You feed are the doors that close first. Those are exactly the surfaces a growing account depends on, which is why growth stalls long before the account looks broken from the inside.
Logged-out visitors are the cleanest control group: they see the version of X that does not know you — the same version search engines and most new readers see.
Why your profile keeps working
A direct profile visit almost always renders normally, even during a filter. Anyone who already has your link or handle can read everything. Only the path that requires X to recommend or surface you stops working.
That asymmetry is why the tool reports four separate checks instead of one verdict. Reachable by profile but invisible in search is a very different situation from invisible everywhere.
What to do with that information
If only discovery is broken, invest in the channels you own: direct links you share yourself, conversations inside communities that already know you, and off-platform audiences. Distribution you control does not depend on the ranking layer.
If both discovery and follower engagement drop at once, check the boring causes first — a long posting gap, a topic change, or a quiet news week — before assuming a restriction.