Can Someone Explain to Me the Rationale of Medium Wanting Paid Writers to Have 100 Followers?

How does it benefit Medium? Why alienate writers?

I like the way Medium used to be, when you could join and pay your $5 per month and make money writing without a minimum number of followers. I don’t understand why Medium changed the rules. At first I thought it was because they didn’t want to have to do all the extra “paperwork” of paying all those writers and sending them tax info, but then I realized — it’s all done digitally.