Can I propose a challenge? Write the same story (same topic), one in shortform and the other in regular length and publish them on the same day. Don't crosslink to each other. Let people organically discover either the long or the short one. After 12 months, let's see what the returns are. Genuinely curious. The reason I am curious is because none of my regular length stories have total earnings over 8 months as low as $5. Of course, I am in a different niche, but I think your experiment would still yield some interesting numbers and intriguing conclusions article 12 months later. 😉