does follower count still matter as much when brands evaluate creators?

been thinking about how brands evaluate creators for partnerships, especially as short-form content and ugc have become more common.

follower count seems like an obvious metric because it gives brands an estimate of reach, but it doesn’t necessarily tell you how well a creator’s content fits the brand, how good their actual content is, or whether their audience is relevant.

for people who work in social media or influencer marketing, how much weight do you actually put on follower count compared with things like content quality, audience relevance, engagement, niche, or the creator’s ability to actually make good content?

i’m curious how people here approach that when evaluating creators.