Agreed! Stay true to your craft... if you start thinking of Medium as a money grab it cheapens everything, including your own work. I struggled to get many followers until my first semi-viral piece. Find your niche, keep writing genuine things you believe are interesting/insightful/funny etc. and the audience will come. Here was that first viral piece of mine that took me from around 100 followers to over 400 in under a week.

https://medium.com/@traviswking-ntaa/eight-ways-to-say-im-american-while-traveling-without-saying-i-m-american-b0e91cdc891e