Oh, no, plenty of people who are confident that they're beautiful are getting paid these days. Plenty of them stripping for it.

Spend just a little time on Twitter/Instagram/Tiktok or click on any given Patreon link and you're likely to come across new age digital strippers. If anybody is unpaid and making popular content these days, they're very unaware.

The way I read the OP's analogy is just as the Night Club places restrictions on who can enter, TikTok is also placing restrictions on who can post content.

And why I think the analogy does have some merit, is because the metric used to decide on who gets restricted is the very similar in both of these cases.

They don’t limit who can post content but rather whose content reaches the suggestions, regardless of a post’s popularity.

Also, again, the people turned away from the night club door still can’t go in. Took Too users who don’t post can still view content.

All of that may well be true.

However, if this article is correct, they also seem to favour good looking TikTok users, which is not unlike Night Clubs who also like to favour good looking patrons.

If the posted content is never shown to anyone then this is the same as not allowing the post.

TikTok is like Twitter in that you can follow people.

Something not trending on Twitter isn't the same as not existing or not showing to one's followers. Likewise, something not becoming a suggested TikTok isn't the same as not allowing the post wholesale.

if you can convince your peers to surf your profile, your content is still accessible I suppose