@ weed through - I think that's one of the reasons Medium introduced the boost (even though I would prefer if they relied on the algo, but that's another topic).

@ community - it depends on the scale of spammy behaviors. If 90% of my comments become "great read, thanks for sharing," I'll stop reading them. I don't think it will go that high because of the new membership fee barrier, but these behaviors will increase. It makes economic sense.