That's true about passive followers helping with social proof but I think it can backfire in the long run. When you have a bunch of inactive followers your engagement rate looks terrible and that actually hurts your credibility. I noticed this happening with my account so I started checking who recently followed me to see which accounts were actually real versus just boosting my numbers. Turns out a lot of my "followers" never liked or commented on anything which made my posts look unpopular even though I had decent follower counts. It's better to focus on getting followers who will actually engage because that's what the algorithm rewards now