So one reason why some people might Karma farm is so that when they're later bots during political stuff they appear more legit then they are. Obviously this isn't the case with the fella your posting about since they def wanted the attention.
Also I think it reflects very poorly on the accounts that downvote you. It's such a stupid petty thing.
yeah there's even black markets for selling accounts so they don't have to start at 0 karma which may hinder their activity.
I'm just imagining having "selling reddit accounts with decent amounts of Karma" as a side hustle. Could you put that on a resume ?