Not sure if you were on Medium before the Partner Program was launched. The platform had a ton of amazing writers. Some are still around or are coming back. We all used to write for free. I still find a lot of amazing writers here both new and veterans who choose to write for free. I think there is an important distinction to be made that “most popular” writers on the platform and “best writers” doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing. I read here on a daily basis, and have done so for over a decade and it’s evident (at least in the topics that I read) that many of the best writers here care very little about how much they make on Medium.