Following someone pre-creates a follow relationship when an AP user is not locked
Even though an (activitypub) account looks unlocked, it may not accept your follow. For example:
- your local copy of the user's profile is out of date and the user changed to being locked.
- the user has you blocked
- the server has you blocked
- other server-dependent reasons
In all of these cases, creating a follow without waiting for the other end seems like a bad idea..