By not being formally respectable, TVtropes gets an otherwise skeptical audience (western nerds) to seriously consider certain philosophical positions that they are otherwise quite hostile to.
If LW concepts (eg mindkiller, raising the sanity line, paying rent in anticipated experience) were as popular as similarly philosophical TVtropes concepts, I think SI and CFAR leadership would be thrilled.
I was thinking about it from a different angle-- that sometimes lack of respectability leaves more room for conscientiousness.
It doesn't always work that way-- but so far tvtropes is a home for people who genuinely want to get the details of popular culture right. It seems odd, but it doesn't seem to have the problems with fraud and sloppiness that science does. Is this because people care more about popular culture than science? Or is it just that if tvtropes becomes respectable, the rewards for cheating will go up?
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.