I'm behind on all this because I've not been here enough. It sounds like contantly shifting goalposts. It sounds like a carrot on a stick scenario.

I wouldn't get your knickers in a twist about a site where the chances of earning decent money are low. Medium is a good platform to share your writing and read others, but it doesn't pay well enough to keep trying to bend over backwards and jump through hoops to please them all the time.

I would would just keep trying to write quality articles and not worry about the rest. If something you write takes off, see that as a bonus.