Gregory's Server
I find it quite painless to follow people by pasting their profile URL or Fediverse ID into the search box of my home instance.
Then I click the plus sign on the manikin that appears as a search result.
A lot of people are unaware of this functionality.
@chpietsch @rugk if you are following from a list the method with this plugin saves a lot of copy and pasting. but yes the way you describe is how I usually do it as well