u/ActuallyNot has repeatedly demonstrated he's too intelligent and knowledgeable to be as cognitively incompetent as he pretends to be. Unfortunately, we're not all as intelligent, and many have trouble deducing (or apprehending?) the intent and bigger picture behind skillfully presented disinformation.

In their shill centers, and maybe even for the casual app users, replies = benefits. If they can't get marks to reply, they're the 'underpeople' of shilldom. Few replies gets them pennies each, but if they can hit certain levels, that = up to thousands of $ per month. Not sure if that applies to tiny sites like saidit, but it is definitely a thing on places like faceberg and that birdnoise site.

But the main issue, imo, is that a lie repeated enough will gain traction, despite being ludicrous or completely debunked. It also kind of poisons the atmosphere, and repels the less dedicated debaters.