I think it's as simple as the masses are brainwashed into thinking unless they get 100k+ followers it's impossible to make money.
If you were to tell them it's possible to make money with as little as 80 followers they'd just assume it's a scam.
Onboarding is too heavy handed to get people to join and more importantly, stay active.
I get this whenever I tell people that I write and get paid. They instantly want to know how. Then the second I tell them I get paid in crypto - they just shut down and get that dull, dead inside glazed look in their eyes.
At that point I just change the subject because I know that they will never believe me. Now with this SEC rubbish happening, people are even less inclined to trust anything crypto related. I've had to change the way I think and feel about people onboarding. They don't get it. They probably won't until influencers of Web2 move to Web3 and I doubt that is going to happen in earnest anytime soon.
We just have to shrug and keep doing what we enjoy here because we enjoy it - without them.
Wait until they find out you don't need any followers and can simply earn by being one.