@PortraitPhotography Yes, you might look less spammy as non followers can’t see your posts and the reporting rate will be way less than if the account was public.
no, your posts are private so no hastags will be visible. Usually those with private accounts have a reason to do so, some niches like weed, maybe adult stuff. But if you’re looking to grow your account fast making it private is not a good idea.
The only “advantage” to setting your account to private is that you might look more “exclusive”. You’ve got 20,000 people following you & someone might be more inclined to follow you just out of curiosity.
One old trick that some have used to their advantage is to add something like “Going private next week” to their bio.