I've noticed there is a thirth path: i've seen some members becoming really popular just by pointing out the obvious and attacking other people for the smallest mistakes.
This is a rather easy path, since it requires little or no knowledge... Just find a target subforum, and paint everybody red that makes a certain mistake.

Don't get me wrong, this path is usefull... A lot of people that got famous this way are actually doing the community a favor by pointing out scammers, asking for signed messages, tagging ponzi's, quoting addresses,...
Taking this path also doesn't mean the person is not knowledgeable, just that his path to fame didn't take a lot of knowledge to follow