I think that the term "influencer" comes with a negative connotation lately... I suppose that back in the day, influencers were Socrates, Archimedes, etc. but that was completely different as they didn't move so many people (only highly educated)... But today, some of these influencers, thanks to the Internet have huge reach and very often using the power in the same way as MSM...
We have something similar on HIVE, but it's much more different... With being transparent blockchain, it is harder to "trick" people in the long term... Of course, it happens, but it doesn't last too long...
Anyways, we are influenced by many things and many people, but I suppose that the most important is to not be influenced (and close minded) by one person, or one organization... That's usually a bad idea...
I liked your thought about rather doing a "team change" than blindly follow influencers...
They were role models and people with a special skill. Today influencers are defined by the number of followers and it's so obvious what they are doing because it's actually written in their job description lol.
In a way it's so much easier to let others think for us and just follow them. We need to use our brains, think critically and listen to all the sides. Otherwise we just all become dumb sheep that follow a stupid leader ;-)