I'm not sure where the disconnect is. What do you think the difference is? I don't see one. Membership requires payment, hence it is a paywall. Also, there is no paywall or membership wall on this story that I submitted.
It’s baffling that the CEO of Medium doesn’t know how their product works from the outside. Perhaps logging out of the website would reveal the full-page login-wall pop-ups on this article, as others in this thread have pointed out.
Thanks for explaining and being specific. I did do that when this thread started, opening the article in an incognito window. It’s a modal. Dismiss it.