This summarizes the issue well. I suppose as long as you are free to download your work off of medium and to publish it elsewhere, then medium has the advantage of offering a publishing platform, whereas most blogging tools do not. Ease of use is one thing they are selling, but the real carrot is reach. For that reason, Medium works well for a certain type of writer, and certain kinds of writing. However, it won't work for John Gruber or Jason Kottke. It's interesting that Evan Williams doesn't play up the reach, at least I haven't come across him doing so.In fact, its ethics are actually worse than the traditional typewriter. Why? Because Medium’s homogeneous design has nothing to do with limitations of the underlying technology (in this case, the web). As discussed above, it’s a deliberate choice that lets Medium extract value from the talent and labor of others.