Yes, it's a quest for status. I deliberately set out to be on the "top contributors" list and was thrilled when I made it. I spent days researching, drafting and rewriting my best posts. When I noticed how many upvotes Yvain gathers with his long thoughtful comments, I consciously tried to imitate that style. Not sure if such motivation is typical for this community, but I believe some other top users (e.g. Alicorn) share it.