While I understand your concerns, the idea a writer cannot make good money on Vocal is just that - an idea. While vocal.media might not gain as much traction in search engines, there are many ways your writing can be recognized, outside of you pushing it on social media. The goal for any writer should be for OTHERS to push their content.

I've made quite a bit off Vocal, some months way more than on Medium. If it's quality work and it's discovered by the right people, it can take off like crazy.

Vocal does spotlight various works daily, which helps market both writers and their stories. Granted, it's not as robus on Medium's techniques, but there are ways writers can gain recognition.

The biggest issue many writers have, yet continue to do it, is copy+paste across platforms. Instead of focusing on writing for EACH audience, writers are milking every story as much as they can. Vocal readers are different than Medium readers. Plus, Vocal will downgrade or reject copy+paste content.

At the end of the day, Vocal pays a defined amount per read, which many times results in higher earnings per read than other platforms. It's neither better nor worse than Medium - it's just different. :)