An excellent question.

From reading posts by writers that make money, it is obvious that what I call potato chip writing is rewarded. Most of the well-paid authors flood the platform with trifles.

Also, I suspect that many readers are aspiring writers lured to Medium with a hope of making easy money. We are getting into an Amway kind of situation, where almost everyone interested in the product offered by Medium is a seller of the same product as well.

Recently I wrote two articles related to this subject. In my first article, I share my experiences from my work at the publication that got it right, https://virtualagora.us/what-did-i-learn-from-the-worlds-best-editor-2724bb8f42be.

In my second article, I share my thought about writing in general: https://virtualagora.us/writing-is-not-about-writing-4c4e738a9da9.