I'm not sure what leads to extraordinary success with a story. As you said, many people like to read about writing, and as some people pointed out in the comments, controversy does well. But my all-time best story, one that garnered over 42,000 reads and earned me over $1500, was a light humor piece published in Muddyum. I think the pay was higher back then for reads, as I can get more mileage but less money on some stories these days.