I never and would never "Buy" anything on Hive (That's a lie! I paid for the 'Seriously' community. LOL).

In life I have more respect for people who've earned their position over those who bought it. So I wouldn't dream of using fiat to buy Crypto to increase my influence and rewards on Hive although using Crypto to buy Crypto is OK.

Given we know 'nothing' about users surely the first thing we do is look at the information on their Bio isn't that what it is there for? So we put together two bits of important information, when they joined and what their Rep is. If it's say: Joined in 2017 with a Rep of 30 it begs the question "Why such a low rep?" now there could be a multitude of valid reasons why but ultimately it's an indication that the account is not making many ripples in the pond which is exactly my point of why Reputation is so important.

By the way, I wrote this response for general consumption not necessarily just for you. :-)