Thanks for your feedback. There are three scenarios in which a new user can have high reputation.
A user posts something great, innvovative or exceptional and the community upvotes it big time. It takes just one post to reach 50-60 rep if it's voted big time with big power.
A user purchases or leases SP and self votes on his/her content (posts and comments). Self voting all the time is not recommended but self voting is not a great vice. It is allowed for the reason that investors can get return on their own return. I used to be strictly against self voting on posts or comments but my opinion has evolved. I think major share of upvoting power should go to others while a nice percentage of it can be used for promoting self made content; especially if it is of good quality.
Upvoting bots. Yes, they are the reason most of the times.
If a user lacks quality content but has a high reputation, chances are that he or she is using bots. Their wallets look empty but reputation is higher than the value they create. I think that should stop.
Gosh, I had no idea on those first two scenarios. I really does explain a lot of what I have been noticing though, so thank you for the very clear explanation. :)
I think, for myself I prefer 'plugging away' and letting my rep and everything evolve organically. Feels more 'earned' to me, and therefore something I can be proud of in my own way.
I wouldn't have thought self voting would have affected your own reputation. It seems somewhat counter productive.