anyone actually bought tiktok followers for a brand account? was it worth it

you're right to push back. bought followers are bots or dead accounts, they never watch or engage, so your engagement rate looks worse and anyone who checks the comments can tell. TikTok also shows videos based on how they perform with the first viewers, not follower count, so it doesn't buy you reach. it's also against TikTok's rules, and fake followers get purged in sweeps, so you can pay and lose them anyway.