Based on what you shared in this article, my initial impression is that timing might have played an important role. I had an article published the Thursday before Labor Day weekend and it didn't do as well as past articles in the same publication. Like you said, by the time the holiday weekend was over, the story might have been buried in everyone's feed.

I'll look at the two articles and see if I have any other insights, not that I know much about writing or succeeding on Medium. Lol