Most platforms won’t let you do certain things unless you have a minimum follower threshold. Things such as live streaming, monetizing posts, etc. Artists looking to get record labels these days often have minimum social media follower count requirements too (from the labels). In the end it’s all about marketing and monetizing. They play to the algos, or outright buy fake followers, to build a sufficiently large platform to monetize. It’s fake and inauthentic, and it’s a means to an end that turns their followers into a customer base.