I agree entirely about how the content with the broadest appeal is seldom the greatest in many respects. Consensus requires compromise, which means a lowering of standards.

I've written about how Medium is affected also by its competitors on the internet, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, games, and even Pornhub. We're all competing for the attention of folks who could just as easily click on a more entertaining kind of website. That's bound to lower the writer's standards in most cases.

I'd be curious if your first point were indeed accurate. Just how sensitive are the algorithms? If you click just once, say, on an article about squirrels, does that mean you'll keep getting squirrel articles till the end of time even if you never click on a second one?