If your signal is worth receiving, people will tune in. Definitely a discovery hurdle on nostr but you can never know follower count. Here or on the silo'd platforms. If you want to spread signal, send it out.
Nope. You can have the best signal, but if no one is around to receive it, process it, then return a signal to you, it doesn't matter. That's the issue. She's not trying to pump up a follower count for vapid reasons. She's looking for more and better conversation partners.