I don't much care about the number of followers. In fact, I regularly trim out my followers list when I find somebody whose content is trashy or non original or spammy in any way.
I DO care about engagement with my followers. I sometimes can't afford the vote (not enough VP, but I'm working on that) but I always comment on good content. Like this :)
Thanks for a wonderful post.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It is necessary to care about engagements. :)