Love your take-no-prisoners spirit, Sherry — but alas, I suspect any such protest will simply be blown off as sour grapes from writers who can't handle competition. Do I think it's weird that this story won a total of $60,000? Yup. But do I begrudge its writer? Nope. The folks at the helm of Medium make the rules, and they get to change them at a moment's notice — or ignore them. I've made my peace with that, as with so much else in the writing and publishing world.