If we want to put up a metered paywall, and we do, then we need to deliver. That’s how I see the problem. You are using the product just fine.

You seem to be saying that it's okay to put up a metered paywall as long as the articles are good. You are missing the point then. Substack is going to eat you alive. But I guess you got a good salary! Enjoy it while it lasts.

That's unnecessarily aggressive.

I don't feel like Substack is any less of a nuisance than Medium. Seeing either domain name immediately lowers my expectations; I go in expecting to get a mediocre article annoyingly interrupted with pop-ups begging me to create yet another online account, and sometimes I'll be pleasantly surprised with a good article annoyingly interrupted with pop-ups begging me to create yet another online account.

Not only do I dislike that enough to not want to use Medium or Substack as a reader, but it also means that I would never want to use Medium or Substack as a writer, either; yeah, I have all of three blog posts to my name, but even my shitty writing deserves better than to have any association whatsoever with such user-hostility.

You are not competing with paid websites, you are competing with free Wordpress blogs. Paywalling content is a mistake in your case.

That only applies to posts where the writer has opted in to the paywall, right? If they want their content to be free, Medium will host it for free.