I don't understand why folks use huge photos. Yes, the image is important. But I don't want to have to scroll a mile to get to the text. Also, in how Medium displays articles on your stock profile page: https://use-name.medium.com/ it'll display the image and about 2 paragraphs. So if I'm not leading with a photo, I'll include it before the third paragraph.

Do you not use the featured image feature? If you have multiple images in one column, it allows you to pick which image to use for display, i.e.: the one that’s going to be used if you link to Facebook or Twitter, and in the various ways Medium displays the column in emails and in Publication.

I don't always choose the first image, but I follow the rest of your guidelines.