Thank you for pointing this out.

Requiring an upvote - which has a monetary value attached to it - is the same as selling the opportunity to participate in a competition. It commercializes the interactions. It is not surprising that, already, some Steemians don't value comments which are unaccompanied by upvotes.

Most contests also require resteeming which is apparently outlawed, too. Perhaps the initial idea was to encourage basic courtesy. If you enter three contests in a day, that means daily six appearances in your followers' feed - almost like shouting, "HEY, FOLLOW ME", which most people won't. Well, unless they get paid to do so. Or think they are going to get paid for doing so.

The rules or guidelines assume there's a basic ethical code to which everyone adheres to - but as we've seen on this platform alone, that's not true.

And you're right. The situation calls for an enforcer who has the courage to upset people for the right reasons. "It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it." (I think there's a song with this title.)

Afterwards the challenge will be to incentivize and inspire compliance but without attaching a monetary value to it.