Con artists are experts at manufacturing this kind of popularity. You know what they can't manufacture? Years of reliable and trustworthy behavior.
The trust system as it exists now is not just inequitable, it is a security threat. If anyone who has spent years building their reputation in this sea of fraud known as Bitcointalk can have it stripped so easily with a handful of sock puppets, what is to stop that from being done in order to force silence and complicity to obfuscate fraud?
You still don't get it.
The trust system isn't just about trust ratings. DT is about having a good sense of judgment of who uses the trust system correctly. As a matter of fact, all the positive trusts anyone has accumulated over the years demonstrates nothing about their own ability to use the trust system correctly. You haven't exactly had "years of reliable and trustworthy behavior" in that regard.