I don't really think anyone need shed any tears for Mehmet Yildiz and his 'Illumination' behemoth.

As a Boost nominator with a vast number of articles to draw on, if he is doing it right, he is guaranteed lifted quota status each month, which means $900. Plus he gets to pick two of his own stories, and as his field is medicine, which makes it so easy to dash off 'Medical scientists discover amazing new [whatever]' articles that are guaranteed reads - which is why half the junk in our spam folders comprises such content - he should be getting a minimum of 200 bucks for each of those.

So $1300 per month simply for turning up, doing a spot of selection of other people's work, and writing a couple of pieces crafted from the scientific journals he presumably reads anyway.

Not a living wage in the US, I presume, but far from chickenfeed, and easily increased by writing a bunch of other quality pieces.

It's true that the boosted/non-boosted gulf seems to be getting wider, when they said last year they were planning to tune down the earnings differential. That's just something we have to live with - it will inevitably all change again in a few months or couple of years, then everyone can start moaning about that change instead!