You can use the enhanced stats plug in MediumLytics to get an exact gauge of where people are reading your work.

Here I can see 11 people came via my History List.

medium.comreading_list_tab/history ➜ 11

Compared to how many arrive via Medium home page

medium.comhome ➜ 3267

or via my publication

medium.com/the-bad-influence ➜ 74

Or a topic

medium.com/topic/music ➜ 13

Or a newsletter

medium.com/the-bad-influence/newsletters/behaving-badly ➜ 7

And while it may not seem like big numbers, it all adds up. There's a very long list of 2 views all from my index. And every cent counts.

So no, personally I don't, and I rarely use topics or home pages of publications, but it doesn't mean they aren't effective.