McKinley, I'm genuinely appreciative of you taking the time to spell all this out: it's genuinely helpful (and thank you for the kind words!) The kinds of Medium stories I get pushed at me in my inbox are at the schlockier end of current-affairs and culture war I guess, and although there's a part of me that thinks that leaves a gap for a different kind of writing, I'm being naive in thinking Medium is the kind of place where I could push it. Maybe I should give substack a go.