Being your real self is a filter. It clears out people who only liked the act.

Presenting an edited version of yourself attracts people to the edit, which means the closeness you get is with something you have to keep maintaining. Dropping the performance does tend to thin the crowd, and that thinning is genuinely uncomfortable, though what remains is attached to you rather than to a role you were holding up. Fewer and accurate beats more and approximate.

Let one true opinion or unfashionable interest show this week without softening it first. Watch who moves toward it. Being known is worth the smaller number it usually comes with.