I don't believe this is true. Distribution means that it will be shown to people over the long term, I believe. I recently had a story earn $2 in a day when it had only earned pennies previously. It was published last November, was maybe my second or third that was distributed, but hardly got any views. It still, to this day, has a grand total of 2 claps on it. I will celebrate if it ever gets a third. But, for some reason, it got shown to more people and read one day...

I also have a few other stories, that were not exactly successes, have little peaks of views and have clocked up a few dollars over the months.