Peter Programmer knows Python very well and is a highly skilled programmer, but there is a rep hurdle Peter can't pass because there are already tons of eager Python programmers answering every question at least as good as Peter. This means SO doesn't need Peter or his contributions. At all.
If your contributions are unique and useful, you pass the rep hurdle easily.
So I trolled the "new" queue for five minutes, found a C++ question, answered it, and POOF, I had some rep. It helps that I know C++ REALLY well.
Eventually those Android answers started getting upvotes, and now I have somewhere around 400 rep, which is enough to do what I need.
The badges bust me up. It's like a video game -- for programming questions! In any event, being able to comment and vote on answers was what I wanted.