Something that's been driving me up the wall about Medium's UI (OC)

This is from the article I posted on Medium (the above link):

Medium has a great platform that can be readily used as a case study in UI/UX design. But there is one area where they are falling short, and it may be a good lesson for anyone out there building their own platform or app.

At the very least, it demonstrates the importance of getting feedback from users on how they actually use your product versus how you think they will use it — a core concept in growth hacking.

As an author, I want to engage with people who read my posts. I especially want to engage with those who leave long thoughtful comments on my posts. But I can’t.
If a reader took the time to type out a comment, I feel like it’s only fair for me to take the time to write out a response. Articles on Medium are supposed to be a conversation after all.

But the way the Medium UI is set up, I can’t do that without making the Medium UI into a frustrating mess. That’s because, for some odd reason, Medium classifies articles and comments as the same thing. They are all listed under “stories.”