From the sounds of it, some of the administrators felt that there was wasteful effort being spent on accumulating an asterisk. IMO, it's all arbitrary anyway. Interesting, but arbitrary.
Post counts only made me wonder what kind of lives my fellow flashaholics lead. I would venture that for most, the number of posts is proportional to the amount of hours spent on CPF. I, for one, view evenings and weekends as family time and only occasionally log onto the internet outside of work hours. Yes, CPF is quite important to me, but it does not take the place of "real" human interaction.
Don't get me wrong, CPF is a family in it's own right and I consider it an honor and privilege to be part of it. I just try to remember that, like all diversions, it can become consuming if allowed. For some, I'm confident the pursuit of an asterisk may become obsessive.
Just an opinion and doesn't amount to a hill of beans.