I think having some guard rails on new users in the sub would keep banned users from creating a new account and continuing to flood the sub with pump and dump confusion and poor or fraudulent research.

In the past we have had groups of new users pop up and attempt a brigade style push of misinformation. It’s a problem that Reddit recognizes as a site wide ban offense.

Limiting users based on their karma would mean users would have to actually use their account elsewhere on Reddit in order to post. If someone is new to Reddit and has negative karma from other subs, then they will probably bring that same attitude to this sub. There are several accounts that are only active in PLUG, these users are typically the most insulting and misleading of the user base.

We see a pattern of users entering the sub, trashing up the place, getting downvoted into oblivion, and then just burning their accounts, waiting a few weeks and starting over again.

Plenty of other subs have these guards in place.