Well, in my not so humble opinion, Slackjaw is for thirteen-year-olds.

Otherwise, I agree with you and object to only some pubs having Boost power. Every pub should have it, though should not be able to boost their own editors. I’d also suggest Medium have deep suspicion of favoritism when ANY editors stories are boosted — not that they could not be deserving, but because of the increased attention they may already get — for example, I follow my own editors almost automatically.