Totally understand where you are coming from... in business, there are always sectors such as customer service, sales, hr, marketing department, product development etc.. etc... without one of them, things just don't get done.

As for influencers, you are correct on that, many are phonies and everyone's opinion about influencers or people will be different. As for @grantcardone, he is a true boss. He has many people who disagree with him but many people love him. I wonder if your buddy even know the guy, is his opinion based on watching a few videos? In life, you can't please everyone... just like Kim Kardashian, tons of hate but tons of love. lol

Heck, you should see all the hate I get on Social Media though out the years, I don't know 99.9% of them... When you put yourself out there with a huge following, people will judge and attack everything you do regardless. Most people will never experience this, only people with a big following. All I can say is that people love to stir up drama and and talk about it all day, I'm far to busy for that lol

Did you ever see @jerrybanfield Youtube accounts, its nuts with hundreds of trolls and hate... how can people hate on him, all he does is posts tons of good content, provides value, talks about his life but had some controversial posts also ... with a big following, he can't please everyone. No ones perfect :)

I talked about pretenders last week or AKA "Wannapreneurs", there are so many of them out there but thats a whole different story I don't want to get into right now, I will rant for days lol

In my opinion with influencers, why not bring them all in. The community will oust them if they are "shady" as we all have already seen a few leave because they were pitching there scams on Steemit.

Thanks @lukestokes for your opinion, it's always good to hear other people's perspectives. I remember the day I joined steemit, you was the first ones I hit up :)