I think your point about competing for follows is interesting. I don't think it's usually the direction things work, though. People usually follow topics they are interested in, via hashtag feeds, *then* follow people they found from that hashtag.
If people do decide to follow a hashtag rather than a person, though, that seems like it's OK? If someone decided they wanted to follow #ActivityPub instead of following me, for whatever reason, that seems like it's up to them.
