I originally thought it would be, back when I joined in 2021. The first few months certainly seemed to support that idea, with hundreds of dollars in payments even with very few followers. Sadly, those days are long gone. Comparing two stories written for the same publication from the beginning of my writing career on Medium to now... the first was a 6 min read, with 1k reads, and earned $107; the second was a 7 min read, with 1.3k reads, and earned $48.