Not surprising at all this is happening if the intent is to make X less awful. (Which is something Nikita Bier has been trying to do since he was hired.)

Incentivizing content creation does at least two things: it puts virality ahead of everything (quality, correctness, legitimacy) and also creates disproportionately greater value for users in poor or emerging economies. Earning a dollar or two from a post means a lot more to someone from say, India, than it does to someone from the US.

The result has been a huge increase in bots and "legitimate" accounts farming engagement with rage bait and other content that makes X unbearable. Hopefully this helps improve the content, but wow what a massive misplay this whole thing was. Just a terrible, terrible idea from the owner who understands nothing about what made Twitter great.