There was a time but not so much anymore. I just found out this morning that WC is so backed up that for a donation to their Patreon account they will bump your submission to the front of the line. #SAF

Illum? Their daily pushout volume makes it impossible for your piece to be seen. If you're one of the first articles to be published then every story after yours pushes you further and further towards the bottom.

So being "big" isn't necessarily a good thing. You've got the right idea. Find several smaller pubs and spread your work around. If you have 6 pubs you submit to and they each have 200 sets of eyes, that's a potential audience of 1200 people.