Re: the trimming down. I would go further and say that we're writing 100 stories when we should be writing one. Coach Tony will agree with me. He says quality over quantity.

So the 7 min stories that could be 5 min could in fact be 0 min ... (But I agree with Roz)

That's a bit the question of entertainment VS value. Medium is pushing towards value at the moment (see also this piece I wrote https://medium.com/all-about-m/medium-wants-fewer-writers-and-more-readers-934f5fd768e5)

My problem is that 5 min boostable articles take time to write. It seems that one can make the same money churning 2min articles + engaging a lot with other writers to get some reciprocal reading. That's not what the system is intended for according to what I read.