Sorry, but I don't totally agree with that. I know that we can find members that have good relations or are in good talking terms with each other giving out merits to each other's posts, but that doesn't mean they have specific circles and they do it only that way, it simply means that they mostly agree with each other's points or find the posts worthy of merits, or maybe they like the posts they read.

I've interrupted so many threads and discussions with old users with very high reputations, and I can't say I always went unnoticed, especially if what I posted made some sense based on the discussion and the points that I've made weren't already discussed or posted by another user. The quality of your post actually depends on how unique yet on-topic it is, and how it contributes to the discussion. If you manage to do that, no matter what thread it is, no matter how many OGs are in discussion there, you won't go unnoticed, and I say this based on personal experience.