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I've just realised that I've not been receiving consistent notifications from Bandcamp over the past 8 months
I just was wondering why it is not "have not received". Is it because he received nevertheless some notifications but they were not consistent over the past 8 months. If he had not received any notification he would have used "present perfect simple" or the situation was still ongoing at the time of writing
I think the phrase "not ... consistent" means that some notifications may have been received, whichever tense is used. Using "receiving" seems more natural because the situation is assumed to be ongoing. Using "received" doesn't imply "ongoing", but it doesn't exclude it, either.
I believe that just like the present perfect and present perfect continuous, you may use one or the other when time has been clearly mentioned using words such as "over", "for", "since".
I've not been receiving consistent notifications from Bandcamp over the past 8 months.
I've not received consistent notifications from Bandcamp over the past 8 months.
Although this may be the case, I recommend using the present continuous as it is much clearer, unless the verb is stative of course.
So to answer your question,the past simple wasn't used because it is an ongoing issue rather than a one time thing.
