It not crazy at all dude, thats the whole idea right. I think engaging meaningful comments is key to it all. Especially if you dont have an option to buy yourself some SP (or just a tiny bit as I did), you have to make yourself noticeable. I think if somebody is commenting decent, they will always get a reply from me and an upvote (So my 2 cent upvote from last week is already 3 cent, which I find already fucking cool). Yeah, especially minnows deserve an upvote.... they will remember this, and ALWAYS come back to you. Because YOU started their fortune.
Then again.. replying and voting is way easier for me with like max 10 replies compared to you hahah
You are right..right now I have 260 comments to reply to! That's a little crazy to be honest. It might take me a couple of hours just to reply.