"Unless you have a bank account in the United States, you cannot link your local bank account to PayPal."

Not True.

I reside in India and have my Indian Bank account linked to my PayPal account without any hassle.

Payments are auto-withdrawn due to the regulations in India. I don't have any issue with that either.

"If Medium pays you anything below $10, then consider it stuck in your PayPal account unless you want to transfer it to the U.S. linked bank account."

Again, not true!

I've been literally paid $1.46 in my PayPal account from Rev and then auto-withdrawn to my bank account. And, I don't know why it would be different with Medium when/if it arrives on this platform.