A follower count is a lease on attention from a platform that can change the terms whenever it likes, and periodically does.
What you own is a list you can contact directly, a relationship with people who asked to hear from you, and a record of what they care about. Everything else is rented.
This is not an argument against social platforms — they are where people find you. It is an argument about where the relationship lives afterwards. The practical question for most people reading this: of the people who follow you, how many could you reach tomorrow if the platform disappeared tonight?