It may be validation, or it might have been a way for Medium to build readers by paying authors of popular stories. We all have to be careful about jumping to conclusions about why our stories are read or not read, make money, don't make money, etc.

One writes, gets it published, hopes for the best. I can never predict which of my stories will do well. I believe you started to believe there was some algorithm that favored you which they turned off. Can we know this for sure? As someone else commented, maybe readers just didn't want to read what you wrote. This is brutal, we have to accept it or go mental ;)

If you did it once, you'll do it again! You're going through a hard time which saddens me because I enjoy your pieces. My advice. Don't overthink it. Keep writing. My 2-cents is substack wouldn't work for you. But something will. As my hero Pound wrote:

X

Beneath the sagging roof

The stylist has taken shelter,

Unpaid, uncelebrated,

At last from the world’s welter

Nature receives him,

With a placid and uneducated mistress

He exercises his talents

And the soil meets his distress.

The haven from sophistications and contentions

Leaks through its thatch;

He offers succulent cooking;

The door has a creaking latch.