There is a difference between disruption with a goal to get more information, and a disruption for the sake of disruption. [...] disrupting a lesson is a method of signalling high status and reducing the amount of transferred knowledge.

I think you're leaving out a category. My primary reason for asking questions or making comments during lectures is to signal high status (specifically, to show that I'm an unusually intelligent person who knows things that aren't on the curriculum), but I'm not trying to be maliciously disruptive or hinder other people's learning; rather, it's somewhat gratifying, seemingly harmless, and most professors seem to like it ("class participation").