Read ratios certainly do seem to be suffering from the swarm of locusts, and as you say, seem a major factor in earnings per read, which is not only unfair, but also absurd.

That said, I've found boosts can have disappointing read ratios partly because (I suspect) of their wider distribution. As Medium hasn't a clue how to target articles effectively, boosts can get carpet-bombed to the 'wrong' people, perhaps more than non-boosted stories, and also attract higher non-member views, which is good (free) advertising for Medium, but does nothing for us.