It's an undeniable fact that, the fear of Negative trust and being ban from the forum is the reason most newbies with myself inclusive, do not contribute much to the growth of the forum.
I think your post history tells a completely different story, and that focusing on bounty campaigns is actually the real reason why members like you don't participate in forum discussions - no one will ban you for no reason, but it's true that some use feedback trust inappropriately, which is a completely different story.
Although, it's quite kinda difficult to be conversant with all the forum rules since they are not documented in a single thread. I guess the reason for this is due to the large nature of the forum and as such each section might have different and interrelated rules.
All the unofficial rules are in one of the threads you list in your post, and if each new member read and understood them, the moderators would have a lot less work to do than is the case now. A person who knows in real life what is good and what is bad, what is legitimate and what is illegal, even if he does not read the rules, will not run into any major problems. If someone cheats, steals and lies in real life, no forum rules will help them be better in the online world.