The algorithm recommends stories based on your popular interests and those that are popular with others who read the same as you. I don’t get recommended stories on my mobile app from those who I follow. Though on the desktop I can choose to look at stories from those I follow. I think that many writers have commented in the past that the follower metric does not mean anything. It’s purely an ego boost. There’s plenty writers on here with under 1000 followers who write articles that go big. I don’t pretend to understand the algorithm but I would say that followers appear to mean very little after you’ve got 100