An interesting article. I hadn't looked at it this way before.

I don't know how much I interact with my followers or with the people who I follow. If I read something that particularly chimes with me, I tend to follow the writer, but it might be a long time before I read anything else of theirs. I tend to rely (perhaps too much) on what the Medium feed shows me.

I don't think I have ever unfollowed anyone on Medium. My reasons for unfollowing on other platforms are abusive posts or people putting forward views I find unacceptable. That doesn't happen on Medium anywhere near as much as some other platforms, which is why I tend to use Medium much more than other platforms these days.

Certainly, if you're looking for success or monetary reward, I don't think that chasing followers is the way. I agree with you that thoughtfulness and authenticity are the ways forward on that.