I read “the math” there as doing something a little more figurative. It seemed to me like they led with circulation figures less because they care about their CPM efficiency or whatever, and more to use “views” as a kind of synechdoche for “the people who want to hear what we have to say.”
I think they have it set so that only followers can respond. Prevents most of the horrible stuff, but also downgrades you on the X algorithm. At least there are no weirdo's on the other social media platforms :-)
How lazy do you have to be to not like this math. They act like tweeting is some sort of significant effort.