I do think that the boost programme is a valid response by Medium to this. It seems incredible to go back to human-curated content recommendation in the 21st century, but maybe it's the only way.

The big problem is that until it becomes 10 times bigger than it is, an awful lot of good content that falls between 'handpicked gems' and 'rubbish/AI' gets almost no distribution.

It's a race against time for the platform to increase coverage so that everyone feels they are getting a fair shot, before disillusionment sets in.

Last month they added more pubs to the programme (20-odd?), so maybe the race will be won. But I still worry about it ending up being like a football league - a big four at the top, 3 or 4 more getting moderate success (the Villas, Spurs, etc.) and everyone else wondering why they even bother, while dreaming of a Leicester City fluke season.