It has legitimate benefits. Aside from the ability to downvote comments after 500 karma, your karma score affects the positioning of your comments in threads. T

It has legitimate benefits. Aside from the ability to downvote comments after 500 karma, your karma score affects the positioning of your comments in threads. The highest comment or reply isn't always the most upvoted, there's a ratio of upvotes to cumulative karma that dictates where your comment sits in a thread and in turn, its visibility to other users.