You're right, of course. But it's human nature, it seems, to see a number (or a representation of one) next to one's name, perform some action, see it go up, and then feel compelled to carry on pushing it that way. Abstracting it to "hubwheels" doesn't stop that, though it might help.
And here' where I must respectfully disagree. This is one aspect I think mk and thenewgreen got exactly right. Perhaps, on some level, "badges earned" matters. To me, though, "badges given" matters oh so very much more. Something the Reddit crew never understood is that "amassing karma" is a bad thing according to scripture. You want to keep away from karma as much as possible. So for me, yeah, the wheel spins round'n'round but every time it goes around again, I owe the universe a badge. I went to bed owing three fewer badges than what I woke up with. It's a very different way of looking at things: on Reddit, you want your karma to climb (why? I could get into exactly how useless karma is; my position hasn't changed much since 2010). Hubski, you want to keep your karma flat. If the system is praising you, get out there and find something within the system worth praising. I'm not proud of the "15" under my name, I'm embarrassed by it. It's a measure of karmic debt.
That's an excellent explanation; thank you. I particularly like the notion of the wheel spinning "round'n'round", rather than a total being added-up somewhere. Perhaps that'll help me see Hubski for what it can be. However, I still think that there's the risk, if the site exploded in popularity, that this wouldn't be widely-comprehended.