I can imagine that you will have different type of followers, if you just go and buy a lot of Steem or if you're writing your way up there.
If you go the first way, let's call it fast-food-way, you will get lots of followers that are just interested in getting your attention and getting you to give them an upvote. It's these guys that are spamming your comment section with stuff like "upvoted and followed, please follow back".
Then the other way would be to deliver steady good content and earn that way your Steemt - the slow-food-way. That way will get you followers that are authentically interested in your content and they interact with you in a meaningful way.
However, I think the second way can be really tedious and it takes a lot of time (and talent) to earn a decent amount of Steem. I personally think that finding a middle ground between the two ways is best. I buy from time to time a few steem and I do my best to deliver content that is useful to others.
Awesome Comment! Like @dandesign86 said its a very good comparison.
Very good comparison -Spot on!
I also think somewhere in between is good, that's where I try to be.