Firstly congratulations on making it to 20,000 followers. It might not help to gaurentee any views or readers in the short or long term. But it is a very good indicator that you are doing something right. I think you will find others who have been on the platform the same time even possibly publishing as much that might be no where near this number because they are not providing good content.

Sadly, this is not something that is limited to just the writing world. I have personally found it to be present in at least two other areas that I have been a part of.

The first is the computer and online services, while there are many people that earn a living doing this work. There is also a significant group of people that are essentially customers that totally begrudge someone charing a fair rate for their services. I know there are some crooks out there that try and rip people off. Just because someone does not use expensive equipment to complete a job, does not mean that they have not spent years learning how to do the job.

The other area is photography, and in many ways the sentiment is very much similar to writing, that money is a dirty word. However, this does in a way seem to extend to the majority of creative industries. Being creative just does not seem to be valued