My take is it wouldn't matter if #1 or #2 strategies were implemented by Medium, you'd still reach diminishing returns below 100K followers. Your content is too broad and technical.

Write about how to get skinny, rich or famous if you want to break out of your limited audience.

Look at Dude Perfect and Veritasium. They both deal with physics, one in using it for trick shots, the other to make educational videos. The first has around 60 million followers, the latter 10 million.

Content (audience) determines income. No algorithm is going to give your content greater appeal to the masses.