Following someone, and knowing them are different things.

> like their work

Which often is "selfies in different places"

> and recommend only a few places?

That they convinced to let them stay, visit, or eat for free...

Consider also that the alternatives are heeding the hotel itself or a booking engine or a travel agent. As was said, if you're going to be influenced by someone, why wouldn't it be someone whose veneer of life you'd at least tangentially followed, someone who might typically have similar interests to you (surfing, outdoors, fine dining, etc). It might be an imperfect filter of the products being offered, but at least there's a non-zero chance that they rejected poor offers or didn't write enthusiastically about the ones they didn't love.

I think it's short sighted to write off some of this.