They counted comments and the number of upvotes (or what have you) in an attempt to stop trolls and bad actors. If you didn’t have enough comments you couldn’t post anything to the message boards and therefore could really engage with the message oars above a certain level. I remember that some also used to limit the number of comments any one user account could make per day, especially new users. It’s been 20 years or more at this point and I don’t remember those blogs or message boards, honestly.
This is just conjecture though. I do think he originally did not intend to buy Twitter. I do think he was essentially forced to buy it. I know from news articles around the time of the sale that he gave significant pushback when relevant parties forced the issue. Things may very well have changed after he became the owner (and what deals he made to be able to afford it may never be known).