If you didn't realize that it was the quality of the writing and the topics that were making people leave Medium, then you're clearly not a reader. Why do you think that Ev Williams fired all his editors. He said that the magazines weren't paying for themselves. I can tell you that the articles were awful.

My jaw dropped when you suggested that Medium actually pay readers to read. That's rather like asking manufacturers to pay people to drive their cars or for doctors to pay their patients to come and see them.