I’ve personally never liked the idea of “following.” I don’t want to follow or be followed.
It just sounds so stalkery. If someone was “following” me in real life I’d probably lock myself in my home and panic.
Also, if you really want to “follow,” every user page has their own RSS feed, so you could technically have an RSS feed showing the posts of your favorite shitposters. RSS is kind of an open source version of “following” that isn’t restricted to one website.