So we all wish that writing talent were rewarded as in wow, so many great writers, lets incentivize them greatly. I might be wrong but that ship sailed so long ago, if it was ever in port to begin with, long long ago.

Rather the correct way to think about Medium, IMO, and now apparently you, is that Medium should be thought of as a piece-work sweatshop. That's where the working stiffs are incentivized with some teaser compensation, then when the stiffs start making bonus pay, right, it's time to change the rules. Oh, and keep on changing the rules as admin already has allocated so much in the costs columns of their spreadsheets. Yeah, that's a done deal in their business plan.

No, many authors of note are not merely cogs in some kind of profit wheel to the readership, But guess what, they are cogs in the Medium revenue wheel. So, even the wordsmiths are subjected to sweatshop work rules way out in 2023.

Sure, there's more to it that this, like anyone that can chicken peck a keyboard and knows how to cut & paste, (plus now with the latest crazes in AI), has an iron in the fire, and that's a lot of people, also known as competition using the capitalists' lingo.