For the first part, there are definitely ways to audit users. But do new users or businesses have the time to do this very often? I’m guessing not. Also a sad but true fact is that these vanity metrics look great if you can report them to your boss who is not very informed in what they actually should be looking at. Is it right? No. Does it happen? All the time I’m guessing

I address your second paragraph in the conclusion part. Most people think Twitter and social media in general is their ticket to more users or revenue. They do not want to put in the time and either give up or use so called growth hacks. People are just not ready to invest the effort into growing something that could help them in the long run. But these vanity notifications from bots/BS sure make them feel like it’s working so they continue the hashtags or following back everyone.