I feel similar to you. I don't plan on going anywhere and I enjoy the social aspect of the platform. I do think earnings will return closer to normal this week.

Here is my crazy theory - most of the staff went on holiday break and they lowered the earnings intentionally because they didn't have anyone to oversee the daily earning calculations, and the earnings per read will get closer to normal after Tuesday once they return. We might also get a boost in earnings on our older stories because they are "delayed" according to the Help Page.

Anyway, that's just my guess but I could be totally wrong!