Because people cared to much about their post count and not enough about contributing to the discussions
It's not going to happen.... Sorry.
Post counts aren't coming back. They aren't a good indicator of one's contribution to the site. What you post is the important thing. Not how much you post.
Well I still see lots of posts everywhere that don't seem very insightful or helpful, so I don't think it would get much worse, if any. One can dream can't they?
What if my title were changed to "member with the most posts." That way I'd be even happier, and you wouldn't have a lot of junk posts?