I have seen projects waste money on KOL campaigns, and I have even brought people into campaigns that delivered almost nothing. So this is not news to me.
I remember joining a Space a few months ago where people were openly calling Crypto KOLs a scam. And, I get it.
Some people think having 100K followers automatically makes them influential. But can those followers do anything beyond liking your posts?
I don't care how viral your post is. Show me the people who clicked, signed up, joined the community or used the product.
That is why I take proof of work seriously. I would rather work with someone who has 5K followers and can show real results than someone with 200K followers who cannot convert.