Like most things, its attitudes later in life were formed in its infancy. Back in mid 2000s, there was a lot of people, especially teachers, who attacked wikipedia (sometimes rightly) for being unreliable. Thus it compensated.

I think its important to remember that Wikipedia wasn't always the only game in town, it was just the one that won. Part of that comes down to the choice of caring about prestige and reputation. Other projects like everything2 did not; look where they are now.