Some interesting takeaways and I'm no Tony apologist...can you tell me if the views are internal? Your graph doesn't show that. I'm guessing its the same every month for internal views too.

I suspect...and its only a theory, that Medium are promoting the newcomers and slicing off the pay from the big hitters. Entice the fresh faced writers in with the lure of easy money, get them hooked and then throttle their pay. There must be a cap/cut off point they reach before the switch kicks in.

I don't see much of the buying side. My feed is pretty good in avoiding that crap. Has my income changed? Not really. It was never big or small. It's that unsustainable sweet spot that makes writing fun and not reliable for an income. But your right...the more good writers that leave, the less desirable the platform becomes.