Aki is close to being an oshi (Watching her rn) ever since i saw her Shallys performance last year. I also remember one of the first hololive clips I saw was a clip of her saying she is thankful for her loyal fans despite her low sub count and that endeared her to me.
My top ones are Kaela (Favorite Oshii because she also speaks english), Watame (Was my first oshii but her not speaking English makes things hard), Fauna, Haachama, Aki, Lui, Mumei. Not particularty a fan of Risu but I consider her the best singer in Hololive.
Calli cause I like her passion and drive, and some of her songs, Aki due to the reasons you gave above. she feels so honest in her feelings and probably why kaigai nikis reach out to her. and I love her dancing.
Ina due to her drawing streams and remarkably seiso aura. usually put her in the background when im drawing myself, for calm and concentration.
Moona due to the whole pekoMoona thing. I just love a relationship that just build up like that. its good keyfabe, and that it just happened by chance, makes it even better. it wasn't planned. the whole bunny and the moon and the bond over language barrier. *chefs kiss*
Also imagining pekora as the ambitious chaotic leader, with moona as her second in command, just loyal af, almost better then her leader but choosing not to take over due to loyalty and respect, which they show to each other mutually is great (even tho pekora uses moona for extortion and test subject for her "experiments" is good to. moona won't be bossed around either sometimes which is good.)
Sora cause...
dont know tbh. I just think she's really neat. she got the godess status which has been lowered a bit, which I think is good, cause it makes collars more fun if both idols can let loose a bit.
she is still the foundation and her passion is what gave us hololive so I always come back to her.
kaela is nice to. always enjoy her streama nd is baffled of how she is more of a grind mindset then moona. like holy shit. mad respect to her.
and yeah, its easier to follow those that you can understand better, since they can talk English.
Risu seems a bit to chaotic for me, just like ollie, but both girls have their strengths in other places and are very passionate, so I thumbs up them.