That article is a great example of when point systems go awry, but hardly evidence that point systems themselves are inherently a net negative. A poor implementation doesn’t negate the value of a concept. “This point system was terrible, therefore all point systems must be terrible.” isn’t something that I am convinced of.
Similarly, with Discourse’s badges, I don’t think that their problems negate all of their value. As for those problems, my issue isn’t simply that “I don’t like them”, but as I posted earlier:
There are other problems such as profile clutter, or members contributing non-constructively, but really none of that is ever too damaging because you guys have done a great thing by offering the option to disable badges system-wide, which is awesome.
I am though. To one of my earlier points, system of opinions can also benefit from a reputation metric specifically because they are reflecting something more fluid like social standing.
I’m not necessarily looking for a measure of truth, or that a user is an authority on knowledge. I’m looking for an expression of group dynamics that makes conversations more than just their words. That’s the potential value I see for Discourse compared to Q&A software.
To that end, I am grateful for Discourse’s plugin system. 
Those of us who want this have reasonable means to do it. I’d love to change peoples’ mind on this, and give reputation a better uh… reputation… 
by showing better possibilities.