I wrote about this last week, too. (Though I didn't get Ev Wlliams to highlight it!) Yesterday a thousand Medium writers received $500 out of the blue for 'writing well and engaging readers'. Many of them write about making money here on Medium, so it's apparent that Medium sees this differently.

If 'engaging' simply meant encouraging or giving writing tips, etc, that would be fine--though I agree that I think Medium is so much more than that--but the emphasis on the money made here is, as I called it, 'tacky'. Yet ever-present. It's not going away.

It brings Medium down in more ways than maybe Ev is even aware of.