There’s definitely something to that I suspect. I think way too many people put more value than is really there onto the frivolous “follows” on traditional social. As someone with quite a few followers on X myself, I can feel the urge to want to protect it, but in the end I realize how empty 99% of that is, and that the real network is the group of people I can just contact because I know them, or we’ve done a show together, hung out at conferences, or they listen to my work. With or without X, that’s all still there, X merely becomes a glorified “DM directory” in that context.

Whereas I know others who completely judge themselves by the shallowest metric and want to simply be a part of the group (we all do obviously to varying degrees), and their “embracing the values” is less about about actually living them individually, than it is being in a group that talks about them all the time.
I don’t dislike or despise people who do that, mind you, I just think it’s backwards. For most people though, it’s just a lot easier.

If none of that makes sense, here’s an analogy (someone reminded me of this recently):

You know those people who start a hobby and go out and buy every top-of-the-line piece of equipment for it before they even start? 
- Thats the people who want to be in the group on Twitter. 
Then there’s the people who just pick up whatever shit they have lying around the house to start their hobby. - That’s the people on #nostr. 

In my thinking, at least.