This has been my experience as well and I have left all but one of those groups because of it. You presented this problem in a more gracious and kind way than I ever could because frankly, it was quite irritating to keep seeing this curation illness. Which ultimately equals an obsession with external validation and the neediness to be recognized.

I wish people would just become more focused on their love for writing. I get that there's money to be made with Medium, but as a reader, it's a complete turn off to see these writers scrambling for validation like that.