If I was a new author starting out now, it might make sense to publish in popular publications to begin building an audience. Large publications with many views have that advantage: exposure to many new readers, some of whom may be actually interested enough to follow me.
But while large pubs are good for new readers, if I want regular and dedicated readers, then smaller pubs with a niche focus make much more sense.
When I publish for a popular publication, it’s generally something that I’ve already written which I then find fits. I don’t prepare a piece specially for the publication — that would mean trying to optimise my work for that pub, instead of simply writing in my own style.
It would be nice to have some kind of publication discovery system, apart from how we simply stumble upon publications these days. The Coffeelicious was once running a “Publication Spotlight” programme, where they would feature a new, upcoming publication in each session. Something like that would help people discover pubs that aren’t on the top lists but are still very much worth following.