I see a connection between your thoughts and observations here and a situation that I may or may not write about. Leaving this comment will help me sound it out.
Writer A, a newbie, leaves replies to comments by readers in others' stories, asking people to read her stories. Writer B, a much-beloved writer on the platform gets so upset with writer A for doing this in one of B's stories that she writes a scathing piece, vilifying writer A for having no boundaries nor etiqutte. Most people reading this story pile on about how rude and self-promoting writer A must be. Writer B is a Medium friend of mine. I take a more balanced approach, commenting to my friend (Writer B)
"...as [writer A] did here, earlier this week she replied to me in a comment I had left in a story asking me to check out her profile. I was a bit disappointed that her comment had nothing to do with my comment but I felt that her energy was not ill-intended and actually reasonably well intended and I decided to check out her profile, replying to her, 'I'll take a look.'... I found two stories in her profile worth reading and responding to.... Today I found two newer ones there that I enjoyed reading. I think you would too.
Honestly [writer B], I am not sure why you are so upset or why readers have commented apologizing for engaging with her. I clicked into your story because your title said someone sabotaged your work. I thought maybe someone plagiarized you or left mean comments and that triggered the defender in me. Frankly, I feel clickbaited. ;-) Much love to and for you, Marcus"
Writer B basically said to me, what doesn't bother you may bother me. Ok, that's fair. I informed Writer A that Writer B was upset and gave her the link and said it's up to you whether you want to apologize. She did but also with much defense--not unwarranted. She also wrote a piece telling her side of things and how she felt unfairly/overly attacked. I don't know if Writer B saw it. I thought Writer A went too far in her piece by how she characterized Writer B's motives, and I commented, now speaking up for and defending Writer B.
A couple of days later a reader of my comment in B's attack story that I quoted above, which had been receiving lots of claps for a comment, 10 fans but of course none from the 70 and ever growing crowd of people piling on, replied that she also didn't get why it was such a big deal and also felt clickbaited and would never read Writer B again. I replied defending Writer B, saying this article was out of character for her, that while Writer A's practice did lack etiquette, I don't know why Writer B's shadow self, which we all have, emerged, and that this commenter should reconsider not ever reading her again.
Soon thereafter Writer B blocked me. We have been friends for 2 years without any previous conflict between us. I have a new friend in Writer A--I don't understand why I seem to have lost one in Writer B. Well I do understand on one level. People don't want to examine their own roles in conflicts. Which is what step 4 in any 12-step program is about and why I have written that everyone should learn the action and maintenance steps with God removed from them so as not to alienate anyone from getting the messages. I read a great piece yesterday by a writer I just started reading https://solarchariot.medium.com/soul-self-healing-15bb89e133db that speaks of how healing it is to examine and come to grips with our roles in conflicts and how often they result from faulty assumptions. I had left a similar comment to this in his piece as I'm starting to connect the dots between the ideas I want to cover in the essay, if I write it. I just realized that your piece is also connected to solarchariot's piece.
On a bright side, Writer A showed me yesterday that Writer B had left a very nice comment in a new story by Writer A. She showed me via screenshot as I could not see the comment myself, still being blocked by B.
