So, I suspect that you are in a minority in not caring, and I suspect you actually do care at least a little bit. Claiming not to strikes me as more signaling of social status than anything else.

Ah, the old semantic debate between "zero" and "a small number with negligible effects."

I am not at all surprised that it coincides with you having high karma, nor am I surprised that newbies find the karma system more intimidating than people with lots of karma.

hankx7787 currently has 164 karma, which is not "high karma" by any stretch of the imagination.