I agree completely with the principal of what you are saying here. Unfortunately, Medium have made it so that it makes logical sense to do whatever you can to hit that 100 mark. I wanted to get over the 100 mark so that I could apply to join the partner program. I didn't do it in a day though, I did it in 3 weeks, and had published 13 stories by then, which feels reasonably organic, but I did follow to get followed during that time. In fact, that is exactly what Tom Kuegler recommends in his free 5 day course, written before the Partner program changed. Yes, i think it's a stupid tactic, because it doesn't get you the engaged audience that your writing deserves and it doesn't help anyone, but I certainly don't judge anyone for taking a few shortcuts to be able to qualify for the partner program.