A bug that looks easy but is in fact hard is the worst case: low reputational payoff, but very high effort. The first thought is that there ought to be an obje

A bug that looks easy but is in fact hard is the worst case: low reputational payoff, but very high effort. The first thought is that there ought to be an objective measure of the work done that can incentive contribution by accurately reflecting what someone has added to the community. On the other hand, measure lines of code added might have some unintended consequences... It seems to me though that OP did appreciate the amount of effort involved, and presumably even more so because it was unglamorous work. If all the community members understand that, then it seems to me the system is working to some extent. If peers are able to value the most useful contributions - that's what you are looking for, right?