All I can say is that someone new to a forum may be swayed by high-posters for whatever reason -- I mean, hey, they post a lot, so they must be long-respected forum users who reeeally know what they're talking about, right?
That's about the only reason that I can think of....of why someone would want to rack up a post count -- to impress the less-informed. Or maybe they just like pretty colored stars. Don't get me wrong, I will probably get to 1000 posts someday, and there's nothing wrong with anyone who does. But someone who does it in 6 months as opposed to 2 or 3 years raises my eyebrow as to their true intentions, especially when they post odd comments here and there about nothing in particular.
So yes, MA Cooke, other people do notice this, and yeah, maybe we are uptight, lol. You can usually tell the star-searchers by the level of content, spelling, and maturity (read age) in their posts. My solution has been to read up on as many topics that interest me, learn who's who in the forum, and then weed out the high-babble posters vs. the high-information posters in my own mind.