It looks like the changes that Medium made to circumvent the bots and fraudsters might have have been detrimental to some genuine writer's earnings. If that's the case, I wonder if a hand's off approach might work better, underpinned by the assumption that things work themselves out eventually (free market-esque). Writers have the ability to block and/or report profiles, so if they are encouraged to do that, they are self-protecting. The more who do the less impact the bots have. This will also provide you with stats on the main culprits. Taking the god approach and secretly twiddling with how people earn their dough is risky play if you ask me.

Another thought for Medium - How do they handle the fraud issue on Substack? Is it successful? Any impacts to writer's earnings? It would be good to know.