Until now, I have never replied to low quality topics because I don't fully understand the inductors for low quality topics. I'm new to altcoinstalks and I just read various rules that made me confused. It's better for me to avoid what I don't know than to get a warning from the moderator.
If I read the thread written by the OP, it is very complicated to describe because it must be my ignorance, I also reply to this post wisely and better because I would rather avoid being reprimanded than having to break the rules.
When you don't understand the context of a post, you shouldn't reply to it anyway, but even if you reply to a topic that is low-quality, you are not going to be penalized for that, the worst that can happen is your post might get removed along with the topic if you have put in some efforts in curating a good response but since the topic was of low-quality, it got deleted. That's a negative side of responding to low-quality posts or threads.
Other than that, you have nothing to worry about as long as you are not writing low-quality posts. You can find a lot of good quality posters responding in low-quality threads sometimes whether they are responding to the topic or bashing the guy for his low-quality or useless thread, but it is just better if you report such threads or posts instead of entertaining them.