Reddit reviews Murder In Hollywood: The Secret Life and Mysterious Death of Bonny Lee Bakley (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

I do not think that what you have said is ridiculous and I would be interested to find out more, but I honestly can't see how you are describing a cult by the established notions of what a cult is. The article you linked to is very interesting. It is certainly conceivable that cyber culture has led to new potential ways for cults to form.

You might be interested in the movie Heavenly Creatures (a true story). This immediately springs to my mind trying to comprehend Andrew Walker. Without comparisons to Scientology in the article (which are a bit fanciful since there is nothing to suggest he ever studied 'the tech') this is an elaborate sexual game among people who already preferred to substitute reality for fantasy. Walker was a scammer able to manipulate others by phantasmagorical delusions. He was not really able to run a cult, but find women that wanted to have a personal relationship with him and accept him as a fantasy version of himself. It is admitted multiple times that those who knew him understood what he was doing had no genuine basis but they went along with it anyway. When sex is involved it is no longer being a follower but an active participant. People are much less likely to talk about these aspects of cult involvement because they are embarrassed. It seems that very few, if any men were taken in by him. It is rude to say this, but honestly it is not that difficult to look at photos of Walker and his first serious follower and take a wild guess what was in it for her. She is the very stereotype of an unattractive nerd fangirl who met an attractive, interested in her fanboy who channeled the spirits of her sexual fantasies for kinky sexplay.

What it sounds like you are talking about in your other examples is women using the internet to meet other people, form personal relationships with them and then manipulate these relationships for gifts/money. As you say - "Somehow, for some reason, these people were giving money/time/services/items to these leaders for absolutely no gain. Not spiritual, not emotional, not physical or tangible. It's hard for me to fathom why, then, people would do that."

There are many women and men who form followings online for this reason. There are also various examples of 'catfishing' including perhaps most famously Talhotblond https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talhotblond and Mati Te'o's fake girlfriend http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3407600/Manti-Te-o-football-player-hoaxed-elaborate-catfish-finally-real-girlfriend.html

You mention people being 'brainwashed' but this is a popular misconception about cults and how they work. It is an unproven theory advanced by the early anti-cult movement that is not accepted by the vast majority of scholars as having any genuine scientific basis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing

How do you feel that brainwashing is happening? As you say methods were 'hit and miss (mostly miss)'. You say that you were almost indoctrinated, can you provide more details about this? You also say that you have witnessed people being manipulated to commit crimes 'nothing heinous' - what specific kind of crimes are you referring to? What is the 'leader' you refer to like personally?

You mention that people are drawn into online fandom under false pretenses but continue to have a relationship with this person once they realise she is not telling the truth. It is not clear what this person has to offer if their fandom is bogus but I am willing to guess she may be (or pretend to be) a young attractive woman? I am also wondering if most or all of the 'followers' you refer to are men?

When you say you saw the methods of the 'leader' what you describe is basic online scamming that predates the internet through Lonely Hearts Scammers. Bonnie Lee Bakley parlayed her life as such a scammer into marrying celebrity Robert Blake. https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Hollywood-Mysterious-Martins-Library/dp/0312982763 Besides this book you can find many examples of exactly what you describe in true crime including 411 scams and Nigerian begging scams - which people still do actually fall for despite how well known and documented they are.