Like you said @MortenCopenhagen , it was not of much use. The only thing it was useful for is that we could find/see/filter the bot or spam profiles that followed us and could report them easily 
Just let Google Maps be Google Maps and not make it social media. 
I started a parallel discussing about this on Reddit. And with permission I would like to share an important reply, that I think is very important. It about cyber security and privacy. Here it goes:
I am so glad. Google Mapsā attempts to turn itself into a social media platform was never thought through more than just at a cursory level, especially from the usersā perspective. ANDā¦ they started it right after Google Plus failed, without Google ever learning any lessons from Google Plus. I imagine some exec saying, āWell, weāre shutting down Google Plus, so letās just try to do Googleās social networking via Google Maps, since we already have a bunch of devoted Local Guides we control.ā
The safety issues run so much deeper than just ādidnāt think about it.ā They built a system where every photo you take, every review you write, and every question you answer creates a breadcrumb trail of your life. And hereās the kicker, they publish it all with dates that anyone can piece together. Any halfway motivated person can reconstruct your routines, figure out where you live and work, and predict where youāll be next weekend. Itās not just about stalkers either, think burglars who now know your travel patterns, employers snooping on your activities, or insurance companies building profiles on your lifestyle choices.
The worst part? Google buries all of this behind innocent-sounding prompts. āWould you like to help this business?ā sounds harmless, right? What they donāt tell you is that clicking yes means permanently broadcasting your location history to the world. And those followers? They can track your movements without you ever knowing who they are, when they started following you, or why theyāre interested in your patterns. Thereās no notification system, no way to block specific people, no privacy controls worth a dā¦
My own situation really drove this home. With 220k points and 1500 followers, I was basically running a public diary of my life every weekend. Same routineā¦ walking down those long Bangkok streets, taking photos of businesses, uploading them in real time. Looking back, I created the perfect stalking scenario: predictable schedule (every Saturday and Sunday), predictable routes (linear progression down major streets), predictable behavior (photographing businesses), all published for 1500 anonymous followers to analyze. The fact that nobody showed up saying āHey, are you Joseph Dewey?ā doesnāt mean the system is safe, it just means I got lucky.
What really gets me is how Googleās entire safety approach is backwards. They prioritize engagement metrics and gamification (those points and badges that keep us hooked) over basic security principles. They could easily add randomized delays to posts, anonymize contribution patterns, require mutual consent for following, or even just clearly explain the risks. But that might reduce engagement, and we canāt have that, can we?
Please join me in criticizing Googleās lack of focus on people. Itās the only way theyāre going to change.
This is really good food for thought. Please comment below.
Iām glad that this feature is going to finish soon @MortenCopenhagen Iāve never find it useful. Maps should be continuing as a powerful tool to navigate cities, for social media we have enough platforms already.
@MortenCopenhagen
Die vorgenannten Aussagen stimmen auf jeden Fall wenn man immer die gleichen Zeiten und Wege beschreitet.
Wege und ZufĆ¼gungen Ƥndern sich und lassen sich dadurch nicht immer nachvollziehen.
What do cyber security and privacy have to do with the follow function of Google Maps?
Did you read the reply from reddit?
@MortenCopenhagen you are right Sir 
No I didnāt. Whatās said on Reddit?
I shared it word for word here in this discussion. Scroll up a bit.
I am actually quite disappointed by this and had already sent my feedback via Google maps that I was actually upset that this is going away.
But reading through this thread I believe I used it or had a different mindset to why it may have been there in the first place
I use (soon to be used) it quite often. I follow a couple of really good local guides in my area. So I know I can trust their reviews, their opinions , and they typically have higher quality in their content.
It also prioritized people you followed when looking at the restaurants pages. Their reviews would typically be the first or the second ones you would see.
I also believe it gave a little more insight to how a guide may be. A level number up to 10 only shows a few metrics, but if someone had letās say 2,000 people following them. You also probably know that they provide higher quality content.
The way this section was structured, I also thought it was useless! And for me privacy was not in danger, myself for example itās not that when I go to a place then I immediately publish the review or the photo, sometimes it even passes a few weeks. Maybe on the privacy and security side are more dangerous other social networks like Facebook or Instagram, since many publish in real time photos of their holidays letting someone understand that their house or apartment is therefore free! 
However, I have an omen that Google wants to strengthen this social side of Maps, who knows that in the not so distant future there will be news and it will be a new section in Maps for interact with followers? 
David
Yeah I took a look of that long thread. See a lot of terms of cyber security and privacy etc. But Iām simply curious what cyber security and privacy have to do with the follow function of Google Map.
Food for thought indeed @MortenCopenhagen. Iām even amazed at how Iāve personally been gradually drawn into the Googlesphere by aspects of gamification in a way that I would have rejected outright 20 or 30 years ago. The constant bombardment and exposure to this type of thing numbs the consciousness until we all let our guard down. But personally, Iād never follow 1500 or 2000 LGs nor have that many followers. Reminds me too much of Facebook, and I could never understand people having all those imaginary āfriendsā in their online life.
Based on the lack of participation by my countrymen on the @AdamGT Leaderboards, I havenāt been able to establish that they are other Local Guides in my area @MattSchepp.
I donāt live the restaurant life, so this hasnāt been my reality.
With no increase nor improvement in my contributions, it is puzzling therefore why Iāve been having an increase in maps users with doubtful looking profiles attempting to follow me in recent times.
Incredible! I never really have given this much thought the way you have shared @MortenCopenhagen Itās true, our entire history of our schedules are up there for random followers to see. Google really should add an extra layer of privacy policy to make sure this info reaches the people we allow to be shared with.
Here is another great comment shared on Reddit by Birb_buff:
Although I can recognize that the follow feature wasnāt useful to many users, I think I am gonna miss it because, I feel like it was a way to see who would potentially interested in meeting up. Sometimes, you can look up a follower that carried their names/titles to other social sites, DM them, and create a meet up from there. I wanted to use that method to send invites to the Guides who were local to my area to build up a very close proximity group that can regularly meet up. I guess Iāll just have to use the āExploreā page to see who I can invite from now on.
They kindly allowed me to copy-paste it here on Connect.
Hi Morten, on one site I really agree with you - strange you have āfriendsā or āfollowersā, but you canāt interact.
On the other hand why should you? You see what your followers do and most of us have already enough standard socialmedia accounts anyway. For a closer contact you can still connect another way.
I also think the amount of followers shows a bit your commitment and quality of posts, since you canāt force it really to gain more followers - Followers you get as a benefit for your āworkā / posts on Google maps. Thatās why I like it.
I understand your point. But this noble use has been undermines by users who started following thousands who then out if politeness chose to follow them back.
Years back Google made the following counter measure: they limited how many you can follow to 10k.
Iāll miss the feature for two reasons @MortenCopenhagen the first is that I used it to find new local places discovered by locals I followed.
The other reason is 10% of my followers are maps spammers or businesses acting as Local Guides that I then have killed. Now Iāll have to go hunting instead of sitting next to my honey pot waiting for them to come to me.
Paul
@MortenCopenhagen yes, I believe you are right about those people who obuse this function, but donāt you have this in all socialmedia - people who collect massive (like and people) just to built up huge (fake) accounts or for what ever reason. I wish there is a way to have a control function to make a difference between those who use this function in a serious way and those who obuse this function.
Anyway - I think those people will always find a way around, but what would be a good solution in general for all socialmedia?