Why John the Baptist did not follow Jesus? John the Baptist was aware the Messiah was coming after him, and His identity was revealed (or rather, confirmed) to him in the Jordan though a voice from Heaven.
And yet, it seems John the Baptist did not became one of Jesus's many disciples, nor was he chosen by Jesus as one of the Twelve (whereas two of John's disciples did follow Jesus, one being identified as Andrew). It seemed like they had different tasks altogether and could not mix. I am not aware of an instance where they are preaching together or sharing other moments.
Why John the Baptist did not &quot;follow&quot; Jesus and became one of his disciples? He remained having disciples of himself, which you would imagine being a &quot;less perfect way&quot; than following Jesus.
PD: If needed as per site rules, a Catholic perspective is preferred.
You ask preferably from a Catholic perspective.  Sorry I cannot meet your preference, I am (Reformed) Baptist.
John the Baptist had a very important Commission from God, so important it was prophecied at least 400 years earlier in the Old Testament (Malachi 3:1 &amp; 4:5-6). And the Father did not want him to leave his task, and neither did our Lord Jesus.
Jesus humbly allowed John's ministry to come to an end before taking up the same message as John (cf Matt 4:17 with Matt 3:2).  In waiting for the end of John's ministry Jesus did not try to out-shine John or compete against him; and in taking up the same message after the end of John's ministry Jesus endorsed John.
He praised John in Matt 11:1-19 despite John's uncertainty (Matt 11:3) which probably arose because John did not observe Christ's ministry.  God did not call John to observe Christ's ministry, but called him to fulfil his own.
Though the religious leaders &amp; pharisees rejected John, very many of the common people believed he was from God (Luke 20:4-6).
It was doubtless easier for them to believe that John was a prophet of God than that Jesus was the Messiah. John was the sort of man who they recognised as being a man of God, and &quot;Old Testament religious&quot;, being ascetic, similar in lifestyle and clothing to Elijah.
And the people had wrong views of what the Messiah would be like - expecting a military ruler (another like King David) to deliver them from the Romans and conquer the Gentiles.
Jesus, on the contrary, was meek, a &quot;glutton&quot; and a wine-drinker, and a friend of tax collectors (who were working for the Romans) &amp; sinners (Matthew 11:19). Probably, none of these were recognised by the people as the kind of attributes the Messiah would have.
So those who heard John's endorsment of Jesus were helped to believe in Jesus, (&amp; Jesus's endorsment of John also helped the people to be more positive about Jesus (Luke7:29,30)).
Another evidence of John's great influence on the common people can be seen in Josephus's history &quot;Antiquities 18.5.2&quot; which was published about 93 AD :-

But some of the Jews believed that Herod’s [Herod Antipas] army was destroyed by God, God punishing him very justly for John called the Baptist, whom Herod had put to death. For John was a pious man, and he was bidding the Jews who practiced virtue and exercised righteousness toward each other and piety toward God, to come together for baptism.


For thus, it seemed to him, would baptismal ablution be acceptable, if it were not used to beg off from sins committed, but for the purification of the body when the soul had previously been cleansed by righteous conduct. And when everybody turned to John—for they were profoundly stirred by what he said—Herod feared that John’s so extensive influence over the people might lead to an uprising (for the people seemed likely to do everything he might counsel). He thought it much better, under the circumstances, to get John out of the way in advance, before any insurrection might develop, than for himself to get into trouble and be sorry not to have acted, once an insurrection had begun. So because of Herod’s suspicion, John was sent as a prisoner to Machaerus, the fortress already mentioned, and there put to death. But the Jews believed that the destruction which overtook the army came as a punishment for Herod, God wishing to do him harm.


&quot;The testimony of Josephus reminds us that the memory of John lasted a long time after his death.&quot;

( See https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/john-the-baptist )
John must have been famous and must have had a very big influence upon the people for this to be written more than sixty years after his death.
The ministry of John the Baptist was rejected by the Pharisees and religious leaders who of course also rejected Christ. This proves that their rejection of Jesus was inexcusible.  Their rejection was not because they had trivial prejudices concerning the style of Christ's ministry, they didn't reject him because they couldn't see how his non-ascetic ways could be of God: they rejected him because they didn't want God.  This is proven because the one who was ascetic they also rejected (Luke 7:28-35).