It was announced in today’s livestream that follower limits will be enabled on official servers with server/game performance cited as the reason.
This is a welcome change because we really do want the game to perform well. This is also an unwelcome change because some of us appreciate having a lot of followers.
In tandem with this change it would be good to introduce brainless followers with AI disabled. If this is the default for followers and if enough people take advantage of it then it should provide performance benefits with less restrictive follower limits.
If I have 20-40 defenders with active AI and 20-60 brainless followers stationed just for looks then I get to continue enjoying building a base the way I like without putting undue resource demands on the server.