Follow up call question

I always see people ask when to call, who to call, how often should you call , etc after an interview. Seems to be accepted general wisdom that calls *should* take place after, the only question being the specifics . But is that even real? I have a hard time imagining a scenario where a company says we really like candidate X but he didn’t call and so they move on. That doesn’t match up with how the process goes, in my experience What y’all think? Does it just give you *something* to do in a process that is otherwise out your control?