In this case, post count is a fair approximation for a proof of work

There is a big difference between real PoW and your "PoW". The latter can't be verified and statement "NEM devs excluded part of the participants to avoid dilution of their own stake" still remains.
People who have only 1 post in the past year are not likely to be real people. And if they are, then they are even less likely to be able to contribute anything to NEM.
Does this mean that it's
you who decides if someone deserves a stake?
If you read the explanation of the analysis on our forums, then you would know that accounts had to be linked into fingerprint or ip-based clusters. It's the same data and analysis done in the previous sock cleaning round. Also, as before, no one was put on the sock list without someone going through their posts and seeing if they were legit or not. Finally, there's even an appeal process for real people who slipped through.