That's not been my experience at all. I only view the "Follow" list because I don't care about the "algorithm". I keep my follow list pretty tight and am pretty aggressive about removing people that post too frequently or without focus. It works just fine for me, but I'm very casual in my usage.

I don’t have a follow list because I never had a twitter account. Over 12 years of using the site without an account and now that isn’t possible.