I think the extreme defensiveness is weird, but I also think the reverse where people get so irate about them is weird too.
I like Taylor Swift too, I think she does more good than many in her position, I quite like the music and enjoy sharing that with my daughter, and I will sometimes get drawn into a thread 'defending' her because I think she receives a level of scrutiny and criticism that no male artist seems to be subject to. But I've no idea if she's actually a nice person or not, no insight into the workings of her life or her relationships, I just think that on balance she's not a bad role model for young girls and she's held up to ridiculous standards. The absolute spiralling about her most recent album on some sections of the internet was quite something to behold!
On an 'influencer' level, I'm not generally very invested but I do like a good tiktok doomscroll. Most of my feed is comedy, books, cute or unusual animals, travel and people doing their makeup really well (I'm terrible so will never not find this fascinating) but there's a few just 'normal' mums (or maybe they just want you to think that) that come up regularly - obviously because I do pause on them long enough for the algorithm to keep serving it up. I scroll away from/block anyone who shares their kids as I don't agree with that, but I really don't mind watching someone cook a cottage pie or go to Aldi! There must be something wrong with my brain because it's objectively bizarre - and I promise I don't have an empty life, I have family, friends, a great job, interests etc but there's something comforting about the mindlessness of it all.
And I do see comments from people who say they don't get out much but seeing their content creator of choice go to nice places makes them feel they're seeing it for themselves, or it makes them feel a bit less alone to have a cup of tea in the morning with a creator who is also drinking their tea at the same time, they have food issues but seeing someone dish up their dinner has helped encourage them to try something new etc. Some people have difficulties or challenges in their lives that I'll never understand, so if feeling like a woman on tiktok is your mate and you're not so lonely because you get to see what she's bought at the supermarket that week then really, no harm done. I don't find it something to be sneered at - when I was going through one of the hardest and bleakest times of my life I used to just have Friends on constantly in the background all the time, I understand how meaningless background noise/ chatter with something familiar can be necessary. Where it gets dark is when these lonely people start to be exploited, or yes - when they go too far and start thinking it really is real.
But also - one woman I see come up a lot was talking about the grief and awful time she has from trolls and from people on the Tattle forum. I went down the rabbit hole a bit because I was intrigued, and started reading the comments on her videos and also found her tattle thread. To me, she's so wholly unproblematic possibly even dull - I mean she buys a lot of shit at B&M and Primark which from an environmental standpoint is a bit of a disaster, but generally I can't see anything terrible she's done at all and nothing on the thread enlightened me on the awful things shed apparently done to warrant all this abuse. And when I skim read similar threads for other people (who I'd never actually seen/ followed - just interested in what possessed these posters) it's all the same - the exact same accusations, the exact same justification, the exact same claims to know someone who knows someone who said XYZ about the person so actually they're evil. If they're a single mum it's what a terrible parent they are and the kids should go to the dad. This woman I do watch has had social services called on her multiple times, been reported to the RSPCA, the DVLA, god knows what else. All pretty much to no avail because there's no actual evidence she's doing anything wrong. People have spreadsheets and pages and pages of notes they collate to prove god knows what, total how much she's spent of her own money, argue that actually she said she didn't like mayonnaise but on 15th March 2021 she had a prawn mayo sandwich so there you go see, she's a lying evil cow. THAT I find utterly bizarre - I regret even getting sucked in to reading the threads it made me feel grubby honestly and I've not bothered since. But I just can't understand investing that amount of time, energy and vitriol into something/ someone you hate - just block and move on surely? That really is the sign of a sad and empty life to me.