"Leute" has in german a more friendly, private and common sound than "Personen" which is more used in official reports (missing persons, accidents, crime). * Many of the readers are one of these "Personen".
iNaturalist is using people not persons - "translate not customize!"
The intention of the english original is very obvious, when they use "person" in singular and "people" in plural (avoiding (!) "persons"): iNaturalist:X people like this/de (click edit to see the complete template).
Most changes preferred words with Germanic root compared to the word with Latin root, here the other way around.
According to dict "Leute" is used more often than "Personen" (~1700:~100).
