What the author is describing sounds a lot like idolatry.

I think it's interesting that at least one end of a parasocial relationship seems to involve relating not to a person (not even in a pretend way) but to a collective of persons where you don't even know the individuals. This is what the relationship looks like on the side of artists, youtubers, but also comments who address their posts as "hey r/something" or "hey HN" (or threads like this) - or bloggers.

Feels to me, that is a different kind of parasocial relationship than the pretend interpersonal relationship of relating to a specific celebrity.