The karma system discourages duplication and it is worth its weight in gold just for that. Imagine if the 50 people that agree with a comment felt the need to chime in. Whereas with karma you upvote and are done with it.
To a newbie, karma voting patterns have huge instructional value (at least they did for me)
To a newbie, karma voting patterns have huge instructional value (at least they did for me)
HN without karma wouldn't be HN.