I compare Medium to the stock photography market say in about 2005. It was the wild west then and any photographer with a decent camera could make good money, now the market for stock photos is saturated with amateurs looking to make an extra buck or two. Which lead to Unsplash and Pixabay and the likes that just give away photos and hope that leads to people buying images on iStock or Getty or wherever. This is why Medium has installed the 100 follower limit and a writing sample. Putting in a affiliate membership drive isn't going to boost members. Medium needs to reduce the amount of writers and boost membership for the curated articles to mean anything again.