I think they were using the karma count to show how much they utilized the platform, emphasizing how big the gesture of deleting their account was.
When I was deep in the Reddit hole I was obsessed with getting upvotes and avoiding downvotes. It was a dopamine hit. When I moved to Lemmy I joined an instance that doesn’t allow or show downvotes, and it has been a breath of fresh air.
This is why I always buy electronics on my Amex card. They add an additional year of warranty past the manufacturer’s expiration.