A feature that highlights the most popular users doesn’t help new users find other users. At best, it only helps users find the most visible users they’d already see.
It’s funny that Gargron justified trending hashtags by saying it would help people find new users, and now months later he’s using the same justification for another easily exploitable and poorly thought out feature.
Clearly, the trending hashtags didn’t help like he predicted and people are falling for it again with a clout feature.