I have been boosted a few times (thanks to you and Mehmet, in large part), so I have some thoughts here, Mike. Yes, you are correct that the lack of feedback is regrettable and a negative aspect of the program. The subjective aspect is due to the subjective nature of evaluating prose. It is like those who judge diving and gymnastic competitions and assign points. Writing is an art as much as or more than a science. As a physician, I have read thousands of scientific papers, and many are not understandable by the layperson. The challenge in Medium is to make scientific data and information engaging and exciting to a non-scientific person. This is a huge challenge to an MD or PhD like ourselves and might account for some of these arbitrary decisions.