That's probably true for the people in the top 2% (not me). For the top 1%, who get thousands of notifications (also not me) the claps, comments and highlights are meaningless as they never interact with readers.

For the vast majority of people, getting any type of response is welcome, but the overall effect of being largely ignored doesn't feel exhilarating.

Worse yet, how about when your notifications for the day are limited to a couple unknown newbies who follow you hoping that you'll follow them and the mind-numbingly stupid "(Name of someone you know) also highlighted (something you highlighted)?

I've had a couple of days like that, sis, and they make me yearn for the zero-notification days by comparison.