Maybe it’s their attempt to combat the Matthew Effect (the tendency for popular writers to become even more popular for the simple fact that they’re already popular).

Suppose someone new to Medium sees this:

• Writer A with 100,000 followers
• Writer B with 320 followers

Who is the average reader more likely to follow?

Now assume the reader is faced with

• Writer X
• Writer Y

Who are they going to follow?

In this case, they can’t rely on popularity. They have to actually check out the writing to decide!