It's good to follow people too, because it makes it convenient to check out their recent comments, even if you're not that interested in the stuff they post. Although I agree we need a better way. I have a lot more followers than some users who post way more frequently and more interesting material than I do. I'm not against your tag theory, but if people want to follow people, we should have a better way to find the ones that might interest them. We've tried tweaking the signup process, but clearly it's not working.
Agreed. BTW, twitter has the same problem, and provides a completely terrible solution by emailing me recommendations of people to follow, which I ignore with extreme prejudice. Though this may have to change as the site grows, I personally feel at this stage that the best path to quality recommendations for new users involves leveraging the 'badges' page.