I think the ability to stay friends but not follow someones feed is quite possibly the best thing they have ever implemented on that platform. That and the ability to hide posts from a specific source. That way if the person shares them again in the future, you just never see them. You still see their other posts though...
Yes that is a handy feature, I have t many contacts on there, so I basically have lists of family and work colleagues around the world that I used to check daily but i must admit I seldom go on there now