I like and dislike this idea, I see where you are coming from. You worked really hard getting to where you are on those sites. I personally have 1,500 twitter followers that I can't really bring with me. But at the same time, It would make it a little more difficult for those just starting out, To grow. We would have really popular youtubers, Twitter, and all the other people come here. They would automatically be above everyone because of their past success. It would be so hard for those of us who are lower, To get up. 

I think they need to get that "follower" button working, So we can start building our followers on here from scratch. Those people who are already super popular can start at the bottom like everyone else, But because of their writing/video/Drawing skills. They will rapidly move up anyways By curating and posting new and interesting content. 

They could also add all our new posts to the "recommended" IN our follower category so we can easily see what our followers are posting, and we can give loyal upvotes. I just don't know if I fully think the people who are really popular should start above those who are newer. Just my constructive opinion :) 
This is definitely a good post, and something we should think about. I'm glad you are whiling to make the sacrifices that you did by coming to Steemit, Maybe you can help recruit some people and build up on here instead. 

Unfortunately followers don't make you money like Steemit does. I have an email list of 1500 people and I make very little advertising my coloring books to them, I also feel like blogging on other platforms is close to worthless. See the work of "Buck Flogging".