Point scoring isn’t referring to literal points. A better term might be “dunking on someone”.

The same thing happens in social circles in a school. Kids are more likely to make fun of and ridicule other kids when they have an audience to show off to.

I don’t think the anonymous nature helps either. Because the person doing the ridiculing is looking for validation that they are indeed correct and the subject is an idiot, therefore the critic gets to feel good about being smarter than their victim.

So the only dynamic required is just someone telling you how smart you are when you cut someone down. Whether that’s upvotes, or just someone commenting in agreement, it doesn’t matter.