Why is debunking people faking stuff indicative of a pathological obsession with fame and status? Seems more like the fakers in the first place would be guilty of obsessing over fame and status.
The effort to debunk rates poorly on effort vs reward, outside of an unhealthy value placed on attention/status. But making fake content for attention can have a reasonable expected payoff.
Not everyone measures the value of their time spent by expected dollar returns.
It's okay to value your time by expected returns, as long as you consider any additional harm you cause to others. If you make $100 and others you interact with also make $5 from your efforts, that's okay. If you make $100 and others you interact with lose $200, then that's probably bad.
Who said anything about dollar returns? Effor vs reward is just a general way to describe an action with some cost and with some benefit.