It's this claim which - among all the self-inflicted wounds of Medium's execrable corporate comms - is the most damaging, I think.

Because it so clearly says:

(1) We take you for gullible fools, and/or

(2) It is actually true in some way - they are paying out the same, just to different articles based on different calculations - but thus also means 'we care only about aggregate numbers on a spreadsheet - you as individuals, the words you write, are irrelevant to us'.

And once a writing platform has made those statements to its users, it's hard to see how they could trust or love it ever again.

And without that trust and love - the willingness to stick with it through the bad times out of a sense of camaraderie, community and even loyalty - what does it have?

Nothing.