Before the change payment was based on read time, now it's calculated by claps, highlights, and comments. The problem with this system is that, unless you're boosted by Medium, there appears to be a cap on potential earnings unless your work is individually favored by Medium staff. One of the non-staff boosters I talked to said it's now almost impossible to get something nominated. So even boosts are rarer.

You'll notice most of the people thrilled with the new changes are new. They're unaware that they won't be able to much more than their earning now. If even the most popular authors who once made a fulltime income no longer can, that means none of the new writers can either unless Medium makes more changes.

It appears as if Medium changed their payout system altogether and they already had a suspicious case a year ago where some random person who only wrote one article won the $50,000 contest. It makes the boost system look suspicious rather than as a true marker of quality.