I doubt very much that they are curated. It's not what Medium curates for. The algorithm, howeer, will increase the spread of anything that is read frequently. Lots of people are interested in making $500 per month, and if they don't have a lot of life experience,t hey will immediately be hooked.

I, on the other hand, 5 minutes after I arrived on Medium, blocked people like Tim Denning, Casey Botticelli, etc. I also mute anyone, unread, who writes about writing. Most of them write these articles after being on Medium a few months, etc.