I hear this, deeply. Simplification is always something we're working towards. I think it's also worth remembering that the internet as a whole is always changing, and it can always feel a bit overwhelming (especially these past couple years!). Medium, even more so -- the company has been under new leadership since 2022, and so we're in a huge era of flux. You're not wrong for noticing that!

That said, writers don't need to keep up with all of this. Ultimately, our curation system is designed to work for writers who completely ignore its machinations -- you don't need to do anything to be Boosted.