What is Medium for anyway?

I envy those writers that have loads of followers , who get thousands of claps on their stories. Having been on Medium a while though it’s apparent what stories will do better with readers, listicles or clickbait headlines. I’ve read so many stories about making money here, or why the new algorithm sucks, or how to gain followers, or a variation on all these. Then there’s the pictures. Every story has to have a picture, uploaded from a free…