Yes, definitely. That's one reason. But my most read story this month was a self-published one and I haven't seen any evidence that, in general, those in publications garner more views than my self-published ones. I suspect that you would find the same since we both have a similar number of followers and are similarly active. If anything, as you say, publications are particularly helpful to newbies.

The other thing I think can be helpful with publications is if the pub naturally ranks on Google. But that is when you are going after external views, which is another thing and, in my opinion, only especially useful if you are using a canonical link back to a website you want to rank. But that's a different ballgame altogether.