Does personal branding actually sell simple consumer apps, or is it a waste of time?

I keep hearing people say founders should constantly post and build a personal audience before launching anything. Honestly if you're building a simple daily tool like a budget manager or habit tracker most users just want something that solves their issue fast. They don't check who built it or care about the founder's story before hitting download. Product quality and word of mouth seem to do all the heavy lifting.

Are there any actual examples where a founder's active social media directly drove steady app downloads?