You said they have a genuine interest, then in your last words you said "reason to stay active", so which one? it's the genuine interest or signature campaign? don't mix it.
What I meant is that newcomers already have a genuine interest in Bitcoin. The signature campaigns were just a tool to give them extra motivation to stay active and contribute more, not to create interest from scratch.
To be honest I won’t say the merit system ain’t some how now . But still you can rank up without being any signature campaign to motivate you . You are here to learn something that’s going to change your live for the better in a long run compared to the campaign because the knowledge you have obtained so far will definitely stick with you and you are definitely going to need it if you want to make something good out of this space . Stay consistent, stay focus , and fixed your mind in what the forum can offers to you now which is the knowledge/information