That could be done but from my observation no publisher would be interested in it. It would incentivize the return of clickbait and skew publishers towards low

That could be done but from my observation no publisher would be interested in it. It would incentivize the return of clickbait and skew publishers towards low engagement, viral content and away form building trust. Likely pushing consumption back off platform to social media where they're at the mercy of algorithms. And revenue would become wildly unpredictable.