Yes, I agree entirely on the filtering issue.
It's one of the few areas in which I will unreservedly say that "Facebook has it right." You can sort your friends (what would be "people you follow" here) into any number of your own custom categories, and then view the feed for just that category. Want to just view updates from your friends who write about politics? Click on that group, and you get a limited feed. Want to just see updates from family members? Get a feed.
That's something we could really use here on Steemit, especially as the platform keeps growing.