on nostr there is nothing to be earned from reputation, but there is a lot to be earned from building it up + spending it + repeat (fake engagements, spam, etc) and the average user does not want to spend a lot of time or resources to build up a reputation just so they can post GIFs

The wot solution is that there is no singular metric for validation. Yes each can be gamed, but wot developers also have to accomidate the current gamable metrics while also forgetting about outdated (bevause of gameability) metrics. The recycling multiply-coexisting and changing algorithms is what makes the system robust.