"lesser-known writers" is an understatement, a writer that has less than 100 followers is usually either someone starting out in the writing world, or someone who just recently started on medium and hasn't yet gotten their bearing. As frustrating as it is, they weren't throwing anyone under the bus, they just wanted to make sure the website remains productive by having active writers who genuinely generate traffic and don't give up on the platform after a while because they’re not truly dedicated to or up to what they’re doing on medium—remember that one of the requirements to stay in the program is to have published a new story at least every six months. They just don't want inactive users who try to profit off of the partner program even though they're not well established yet.