These influencers are paid handsomely by Theymos for staying active in the forum and bringing more important persons into the forum, too. Although Theymos would not want to make it open to the forum, who these members are. o_e_l_e_o might be one of them, another member I think, is an influencer in the forum, is JayJuanGee. His knowledge of Bitcoin is beyond comprehension. There could be more of them, but whatever, only Theymos knows, as you rightly said.
Who are "these influencers"?
If you refer to both o_e_l_e_o and JayJuanGee, you're wrong. theymos never paid them (CMIIW), leo get paid from avatar and signature campaign he joined, while JJG not join any campaign e.g. he didn't get paid to stay active in this forum.
theymos do pay, but for moderators and their job are mainly to clean the forum, not necessary to active making post, even though some of the moderators are active posting and talk about Bitcoin.