A fair point and certainly one that I agree with. However, one thing to bear in mind is that: Members who do contribute will receive a silver Contributor badge. The custom title graphics really aren't anything special. They are a ball-ache to create but I don't mind giving them away as contest prizes or to people who have made me laugh, or whatever, really. There's no real prerequisite because, well, they're just little badges that have absolutely no bearing on anything.
And, if you want to be pedantic: No, I don't have over 5,000 posts - but I also do not have a custom title badge; nor have I ever had one, nor do I care enough to ever want one.
But, sure, if people post something useful then yeah, they can have a custom title - this is really something so trivial I couldn't care less about it, until all this fuss was kicked up.