It is an odd balance to consider. you want to engage with everyone. Of course you do! that's why we are here! But the longer we are here, and the more people we want to follow, the harder it is to have time for everything.
I think autovotes can have their place, but there should be a check and balance system to ensure that it is not being abused.
yes you are right, you can balance it somehow with 100-300 max followers if they make a post 1 per day (at to least to check most of them) but steemit isnt about 50.000 any more, we got more than 500.000 so that's why i totally agree with your suggestion. It's the best possible way to try and keep some balance