I find my shortform stories perform better than my longform ones, which drives me to write more shortform stories. As a writer this is disappointing, because obviously the longforms take a lot more work. And I feel some of my longforms are underappreciated.

I'm drawn to produce more of what people like, and also, I'll sometimes split longer articles into different related topics, to spread them across different publications hoping one will fly. I've had too many longform bloopers to leave it to chance.

So, I guess if other people are engaging with the shortform content, maybe Medium thinks you'll like it too. I completely understand your point of view though.