I don't think it's quite the same. The influencers are at least purporting to offer a trade value for value. Maybe they aren't actually offering value, maybe so

I don't think it's quite the same. The influencers are at least purporting to offer a trade value for value. Maybe they aren't actually offering value, maybe some of them are even knowingly not providing value, but that's fraud not begging. A beggar says give me something because I want it without even a pretense of offering anything in exchange.