Those are good points. I'm aware of this "doomer" fad, but I think it's still pretty niche compared to the dominant topics on Medium which are self-improvement, start-up businesses, technology reviews, relationship advice, and those sorts of things.

But you're right that what matters most is engagement with the reader's emotions. These aren't academic dissertations that are supposed to be posted on social media since no one wants to read that. And certainly there are negative emotions that can be triggered by a challenging article.

Comparing apples to apples, then, take an emotionally engaging positive article and an emotionally engaging negative one. Do you think they'd be equally likely to encourage readers to clap for them? I doubt it. The negative one would still have a disadvantage in that respect, for the reasons I gave. But it's just a hunch.

Negative emotions put you in a bad mood, and who would want to applaud while you're feeling angry, sad, or ashamed?