I have a love/hate with that. It's unnecessary in most cases & mentally not very healthy, also easily manipulated... but I like to look through my list & find people who I can try to give some engagement to that may be just quiet, new, or trying but not getting any eyes. Could do away with the count but would still like to see the who's that reside there, I think.
Satellite lacks it now & it's very nice. Discovering people on Satellite is just a different type of experience than the other clients that I use.