Good post boss
(Yeah, sorry, you knew someone was going to be an ass with that) (not sorry)
I actually follow way more people than I interact with but, like you, I put a select number into my Favourites feed (spelled correctly). My daily interaction with Hive flows along the lines of browsing through Favourites, then a few select communities, then other communities and the "Following" feed if I have the time for it.
Once upon a time (I think it was the last time you had mentioned about following people), I went through my back catalogue of who I was following and cleaned it out. Now it simply doesn't bother me. If they're not posting anyway, I'm not missing anything, and it certainly won't show up in my favourites feed.
Now, my favourites feed is, in fact, a little more fluid in nature, and there are people who are brought into it, and there are others who are removed from it, based mostly on if I am enjoying their posts or not. I find that if I'm not commenting on at least some of their posts, then those posts need to be left elsewhere. If I have the time, I'll catch up in a community.
Cleaning out the following list isn't essential, like you say, if they're not posting what does it matter?
Well, for me I like to keep it clean so that when I follow a person they know I did so for good reason meaning, I don't have a gazillion people in there, just the ones I value. I think that shows respect to those who are actually in there, makes it feel a little exclusive.
We all have our ways I guess, and yours works for you.
Kudos on the 'u' in favourites! ✅