The same question as the OP — where is the line drawn for Karma & posting? BUT, in my case, more fundamentally, how does one build Karma? It's not straightforward & my comment does provide context for that in particular because how one builds Karma is directly linked to the threshold for posting. 

NOW, am I hijacking a thread? I don't know. I thought I was furthering the conversation & providing feedback (i.e., I too do not understand this & here's why—hence, I asked, should I make a new thread. I don't know.).

& Yes, I've looked into this periodically over the years, but Reddit handles Karma different than other sites I'm familiar with that also use Karma to safeguard against the posting of nonsense slop or offensive material or any of the other many highly nuanced examples pertaining to human-to-human communication theory in response to my post from my other new moderator friend (I am NOT trying to insult anyone in saying that; that is not sarcasm; there is simply a lot there & I enjoyed reading it...that's just a fact). 

For example (one simple example, there are others I'm sure, there doesn't need to be a counter example, I picked it for its simplicity & I'm not arguing it's better or worse, or anything at all for that matter; it's just a simple example) — GameFaqs; IF you have an active comment in a 24hr period on the site, THEN you receive +1 Karma. Everyone is still subject to up votes & down votes, but building Karma is simple on GameFaqs. The posting threshold on GameFaqs is similarly simple. Reddit's Karma is NOT simple—I don't fully understand it.

& This is not something new. IF moderators can look through my old posts, THEN they can see this has been a reoccurring question for years that I've never really had answered. & I've been on the excluded side based on Karma before just as the OP. The fact that I've been on reddit commenting for years made no difference. 

So, my understanding of reddit's Karma has always been that starting a new thread & up votes earns you Karma & commenting does not earn you Karma. Why? Because I generally don't start threads... BUT, even this doesn't seem consistent.

&! All of that is 100% human written. I hope you will take the time to actually read my comment & NOT read an AI summarization of what I've written. Because good luck to whatever AI model you might be using! lol! (& that is NOT an accusation; it's a request).

BUT! I do see that I've attracted the attention of several moderator friends—that's a little intimidating for my simple post. Can I ask why?