I like the social banter. I try to help the threads that are just sitting there languishing to get a response. Don’t you feel bad when nobody answers you? Hopefully if I don’t know the answer at least the thread is now near the top again so somebody might answer it. Most importantly for me participating in the threads the last few years has really helped me relearn skills and catch up on the world. I guess we need a couple new categories added.
Just so you know, somebody caught that. Clever.
Wrt the OP, I’m in the #3 camp. There’s only a short list of posters with high counts that I feel are contributing bona fide knowledge where needed, and supporting the spirit of the Boards. The others seem to post out of a combination of loneliness, light trollery, and a sad inability to simply keep their mouths shut when they have nothing substantial to contribute.
Having said that, I also think there’s nothing really wrong with this. I’d much rather be a part of a mb filled with high-count posters than the other way around. It says a lot about the place that people want to be a part of it for so long (although I do have a problem dredging up respect for recently-joined posters with very high counts).
I also think that, right or wrong, old posters with high postcounts should have the benefit of the doubt when it comes to banning (like Otto train wreck). As annoying as posters like him, Guin, et al., can be, I think there’s something to be said for the amount of time and effort they’ve contributed. As was pointed out, handy was a pita a lot of the time, but he was and still is a part of the of sdmb culture. I think he got a good deal of leeway before his banning, and rightfully so, since he did contribute so much. Even if most of it was drivel.
IRL, I very much admire people that speak little, but when they do it’s something you really want to hear. On a mb, I think that lurkers are more like leeches–they’re getting something from the boards, but they give almost nothing back. My wife is a dedicated lurker, and I love her dearly, but it drives me crazy that she doesn’t post.
I pick #3. I am also amazed with the number of posts some people have, and I can’t imagine having the time to post so much. I don’t think of them as “loudmouths”, though, just social and talkative. I’m pretty quiet IRL, and it reflects in my posting as well. Most of the time, what I want to say has already been said.
In my case it means:
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I am a loudmouth whoi*.
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I was in a job between the years 2001 and 2005, where I only had to do about 1 hour’s work per day.
*Thinking this is the human version of a Houyhnhnm.
Wait … are you agreeting that I’M an egotistical loudmouth, or are you calling yourself one?
Monkeys, horde, et cetera.
This is a much nicer way of saying what I was going to say, which is, Some of us are just older than dirt.
The two are not mutually exclusive, you know. 
I shall take that as a good thing
You win the thread!!