Gillan, I am dazzled by your determination and work output, and truly sad for you that what used to be reasonable compensation has dwindled so drastically. I stay on Medium for the same reasons you do: connections with readers and writers that I've built over years. But I think we have to resign ourselves to the reality that, like any private business (read: capitalist enterprise), Medium has no reason to pay its content creators any more than it absolutely has to, especially since they keep producing (the overall quality of said content is certainly arguable, but that's not my point here). So I keep up with my one piece per week, which is doable for me and allows me to stay connected to my peeps (when/if they can find me). But, HUGE kudos on reaching 40K followers!