It's a reflection of who they are in their real life.
There are people out here who will find the closest coat-tails, and hold on for dear life. I think a lot of the whales, and minnows here too, are smart enough to know a well thought out meaningful comment from a boot-licking comment. Some people will put in the hard work and be rewarded, some people will look for a shortcut. A few of the people will find a way around the hard-work and get lucky, but the vast majority are going to realize one day there is no shortcut to anything worth doing.
I personally try to upvote every comment (avoiding spam of course) - even if it's just 2 cents- because I want to reward who put an effort by giving a contribution to the conversation, no matter I agree with it or not. Paraphrasing what you said, laziness is still a big problem in our society. =)