I don't believe any of that. I found a link on a hackers site going back about 18 month in which the Medium CEO said that it had been wrong to think thst engagement was the key to being a successful writer or site.

Of course, I knew that, and so I never attempted to engage with anyone. I just continued to write good, well researched stories and let the rest tske care of itself. The story you commented on has about 50000 reads so far.