I think a few years ago (almost 10, sheesh) when I started out, it was similar. Basically, most of your karma comes from a few very upvoted comments, or ones that are early and garner conversation. I think something like 3 or 4 got me to 500+ (it's been so long that I forgot the threshold for downvoting). Never had luck with article submissions but getting one to front page does give you a lot of karma too, apparently.
Also, while "upholding the median political viewpoint" is a surefire way to get upvoted, it is worth noting that that can be a moving target and changes from article to article. Poo-pooing crypto on any average crypto article will garner downvotes if it's in a thread likely to be read by crypto enthusiasts, while shitting on web3.0 on another article about the current collapse of everything crypto will engender karma from people who are skeptical. Anyway, the point isn't that there really isn't any median politics here on HN, just that for some topics, it does vary, while for some it doesn't.