This is where most authors make the regrettable mistake. First of all, your engagement doesn't factor into your earnings. At all. So that's a red herring. Secondly, Medium does not need to be a grind. I know authors who have very few articles and to this day, after not posting for months, still make $20+. Very good stories have a decent tail, so the focus should be on writing few very high quality stories instead of many average ones with abysmal tails.

So, my encouragement to you is, take a step back, really think what you are best at writing about and write a few stories about that, and submit to publications with Boosting power.