I only find Medium articles linked from elsewhere or via search. In both cases having those articles hosted on another platform or on private blogs would work.

What I don't do, which is where Medium might add value is go on Medium to search for content. I don't reckon I'd find good stuff by going down that route.

So really they are piggy backing off search and links that would otherwise go to "free" blogging software, or at least something like Ghost that isn't in your face and actually hosts just the content.

In short they are a parasite.