Serious question: what motivation was there?

AFAIK points aren't worth anything and don't unlock anything after the first few, probably to help block spam/bots.

It's exceedingly rare that I even click a profile here, and even then it's usually to see what a person works on not how many points they've accumulated.

In fact, there are many cases where the most knowledgeable person on a subject comments, I click to see who they are, and realize they've only ever commented a few times. I imagine they either mostly lurk, or have an idle account they just use when friends drag them into the conversation.

> Serious question: what motivation was there?

Curiosity, what else? It was for a few weeks, I get curious about many things.

Points to me is a light positive signal that they are "a part of HN". I've seen a similar effect as you with many low point HN commenters. So I don't see low point as a negative sign, but high points definitely as a light positive sign (i.e. you can assume they read the guidelines, etc.).