[euvin]

In many cases, the comments can be filled with people agreeing with the creator, the people who follow the creator, the people who would defend the creator.

If you're gunning to be a creator with an audience, I don't think the answer is to completely ignore your audience. It's to learn how to cultivate a target audience, how to not engage with malicious people, how to be strategic about your messaging, outreach, branding...

Of course, if you're not interested in those (truthfully tiring) things, then your rule of thumb is a pretty good one for most people.