Metric I’m curious about: what is the highest follower count for a person who hasn’t been on any “auto follow” or “suggested follows list”? 

Might show something about how engaged FC users are: “how many people have spent effort finding interesting accounts”

I work for Ethereum at the Ethereum Foundation.

Agreed, I feel like following as a mechanic is super nerfed because of channels.

I wish we just got rid of it altogether and replaced it with lists/circles instead.

That would be an interesting metric to have.

TBH, I've never actually followed anyone from the suggested follows and I have no idea who my auto follows are, that was 2 months ago 

I can mention myself already !
In the first week just searching for people cause I I knew I should follow those has passed that path before or built it .