I think the parent commenter is saying in (2) that sometimes readers want to follow a particular author, like some cartoonists prefer to read XKCD rather than Dilbert, even though they generally study all cartoons of their genre.

I’ve often seen celebrity authors write a “Letter to the Journal”, for those kind of readers, and I think that that might be the safer way for big names to be recognized.

It may give the author space to collaborate with interested parties without necessarily overwhelming the peer-reviewed content.

At the same time, some authors are truly just prolific.