I'm new to the forums and haven't given out a lot of plus ones, but I generally read them on my phone and don't have a lot of screen space. To maximize my viewing, I don't look at the names of posters. However, when I read a post that I find especially right on or especially questionable I often scroll over and see who wrote it.
A LOT of the times the deep, "right" comments (in my opinion at least) come from wanderingw, MicQ, and Stef.
Never has it been one of those guys when I've looked because the information posted just seemed wrong.
So, yes I am sure there is some celebrity respect, but I would argue that is a reasonable thing; most of it is a result of quality opinion, which I'm sure carries over into the mundane. If I read person A say "X is correct" and I've seen that in cases where I have been able to evaluate, I've come to appreciate that person A is usually correct, then I will certainly have more respect for that statement than random person B saying the exact same thing.