I mean, sure. My comment was entirely tongue in cheek. I didn't like awards, especially those that are more than just a glorified emoji (such as those I mentioned)
But, truth be told, the wealthy can just straight up buy discussions and opinions. User farms/bots aren't free, and neither was Twitter currently X. Nothing can hide from the cruel hand of capital. The fediverse isn't immune to this either: it's too small for anyone rich to buy out, but there's very little preventing them from just buying one of the larger instances. And even without that, it still privileges those with money - hosting isn't free.
The most we can do is to stay vigilant, I suppose. Be aware of the inherent biases in the world and refuse to engage with systems that are too strongly captured - Twitter currently X, the zuck platform, Reddit soon (probably).