Very little of what Medium does makes much sense, I’m coming to understand. One possibility that would make sense of what you’re noticing about the prevalence of regressive-left articles that are behind the paywall is that Medium has developed something of a reputation for being a haven for social justice/regressive left nuts, so that those people have flocked to Medium, and so now there’s a high demand for those kinds of articles. The other explanation for the phenomenon is this and relates to your question about which authors’ articles get restricted: I could be wrong, but my understanding is that authors have to apply to get into the “restricted” category, in return for which Medium promotes what they write. Given Medium Staff’s regressive-left-leaning bias, among the authors who’ve applied, they’ve undoubtedly selected mostly those authors who promote the dumb viewpoints favored by Medium. And that’s why we get the result we get. And maybe that’s better for the rest of us, who don’t have to see quite so much ridiculous nonsense about mythical oppression written by people who have no clue what real oppression means.