I remember when I was a newbie, The Start Up, PS I Love You and The Ascent were some of the pubs everyone wanted to write for but it was not easy because they were quite selective - what I realized after publishing with The Start Up is my writing (personal stories) is not suited for that pub and moreover it doesn't matter if I go with a big pub or small pub, what matters is the pub should be the right fit for my stories

You're right - things are constantly changing here, the sad thing is many of the old writers have left or no longer active - there are just a handful of us left who started at the same time