The point of having countable "claps" and comments is to make the platform addictive, to provide dopamine hits to the users. That's how all social media work: you want to see what's new, and you have a fear of missing out, so you keep coming back and scrolling.

And I don't see any way of changing the platform to suit all the users. My point is that there's a divide between types of readers (roughly, young vs old), so that the platform must choose to whom to cater. The ranking system (clapping) suits writers whose audience is made up of enthusiastic clappers (and who are young and want to read about startups and self-help), but not all writers aim to reach that crowd.

It's not an even playing field. And the platform isn't the only one in the driver's seat, as it were. The variety of audiences makes for different demands, and the platform can't please everyone.