Yes, non-original memes need the rewards set to burn or declined.
I don't much like it either, I think bringing them to the hive is curating the web for the benefit of everybody here.
I think that has value.
But, that is not the standard set for getting rewards from the community.
It has nothing to do with personalities, it is a blanket rule applied to discourage spammers from draining the pool by creating bots to grab content and post it here.
If you look, I created a community for non-original memes, and post in it from time to time.
Rewards are set to burn, because I don't want to get flagged, either.