I’ve also noticed some recommendations just because the guy is a “local legend near me”.   For well over a decade many of us have been pleading for just such a way to hide this feature, or an opt-out switch… to no avail, as we consider this to be a big invasion of privacy.  Here's the primary thread on this topic from two years ago: https://communityhub.strava.com/ideas/get-rid-of-suggested-athletes-who-to-follow-banner-5868  Feel free to add your vote to that idea... if you think it will help!  

The suggested “Fan Favorites” is a disaster, although “Local Legends” is almost as bad.

Strava is offering up suggested Fan Favorite friends that are hotels (seriously, I was just offered a hotel in Thailand) with no activities, who follow no one, and have all of 100 followers.

And as for “Local Legends”, I took a look at one such the other day who is supposedly nearby. She hasn't posted a visible activity in 2 years but somehow has > 1000 followers.

Total insanity.

Thanks for the replies/feedback. Look, I really do love the genuine Strava community- people out trying to be healthy, enjoy exercising, and encouraging others. Like all social media platforms it likely will get taken over by people wanting to sell/advertise products or honestly, a de facto dating site. In all honesty, if people who don't post in a certain time period (90 days?) would be deactivated it would prevemt an algorithm from telling me to follow some person who isn't really going to motivate me. 

​@Ben V. :  I think your fears have already come to pass.  Here's a quote from a recent Crunchbase article: 

 
Fitness app Strava reached a $2.2 billion valuation after raising an undisclosed amount of new funding including debt, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new deal represents a nice boost for the company, which last raised funding in 2020 at a $1.5 billion valuation.

When management deals with those sums of money, they're by nature out of the realm of the ordinary cyclist/runner/swimmer.  Which is why they offer up these bizarre things like fan favorites who hardly ever post, or local legends who have private accounts.  They can't relate to us any more than we can relate to $2.2 billion.     

The concept of “Fan Favorites” has pretty well jumped the shark when Strava suggests that I should follow a Chipotle fast-food franchise in California.

Hahaha, and I thought a hotel that doesn't load anything as a "fan favorite" was funny.  

Sigh, Strava just suggested I should follow a cycling fan favorite by the name of “Lance Armstrong”. That is a helluva hard NO!

That aside, I have seen so many Westin branded hotels offered up as fan favorites over the past month that I have to wonder if the hotel chain is somehow gaming the system, or if Strava is taking in some weird advertising dollars, or both.

Oh, ah-ha, I see that part of it is that that Westin hotels are following each other. So, yes the chain is gaming the system