The drama around it is the only interesting thing about it.
Obviously enough people care about it that: a) they track a high score, b) have rules about how to get that high score, and c) actually check if the high-scorer violated said rules.
> It's absolutely insane to me that this grown man has fought tooth and nail to protect his status as a high-scorer
People are weird. I'll bet there's a bunch of things in your household that are involved in some kind of "best of" competitions with competitors that are fiercely protective of their status.
Somehow, at this point that would sort of make sense, at least to me.