I mean, I'd love to get 100 view on any of my recent Medium stories.

I guess I joined Medium too late in the game to take big numbers for granted. But I've had the same experience with YouTube. Just try launching a YT channel today and gain 3K subscribers in a year without some serious effort and luck.

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but platforms don't owe you viewers or followers. Platforms mature and change, and we just have to adapt and learn, constantly, instead of thinking we can rest on the laurels of early adaptor success.