I agree, there's a lot of potential for Steemit onboarding accounts which already have huge followings elsewhere. However, there are still other factors which influence their success here.

My first thought is that without their following migrating with them, they have to create a new following, which puts them in the same position as everyone else starting here. Migrating their following isn't currently very easy, because even if the account creation process is speeded up, the huge, unmemorable passkey is an issue for many. I know numerous people who have had to start over because they lost it or didn't quite write it down properly. Without a benefit to them, what's the point in migrating with the account they follow, if it's simpler to stay where they are and continue following them there? This is why I feel curation rewards could do with improving so that even low level accounts will start to see some return on upvoting. So far, the hardfork seems to have made a small improvement in that regard, which is a plus, but has it made much improvement for new accounts?
So to summarise there, if people with followings elsewhere can't entice their followers, then they aren't as beneficial an advert for Steem as we'd hope.

Another thing I find is that when some of these people come to Steemit, they don't always interact here. It's disappointing to go over and comment on their post, maybe ask questions and receive no reply. I get that some don't really have the time, but it's not going to help them if they're needing to build up that following. It's not giving a great impression to a new audience. I get the impression from some (not all) that they're just copying their work over from their other sites, just to see if it will get another source of income. There's one I came across whose only actions on here are to copy from their website and self vote it. I guess that's the attitude @themarkymark was referring to. Just grab what you can while you can.

Looking at these accounts that you've mentioned, the first one that really jumps out at me is @yidneth who really seems to be reaching out to the community here. Then there's @gardeningchannel, who is a little quieter maybe, but certainly doesn't ignore those interacting.

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