[logicalmonster]

It feels like you described what the plausible deniability is; or the ostensible excuse that could be used.

But does that actually describe reality?

Given how corrupt and petty Wikipedia's editors have become, the more complete and realistic reason might be that having a complex set of rules that allows some humans to pick and choose who makes it on Wikipedia gives people who would otherwise have little of it, some real world power.

And if you think humans aren't above basing their life activity over a petty bit of power, well, I've got some Reddit moderators to show you.

[derefr]

I mean, I wasn't trying to define notability; the question asked was "why does Wikipedia have notability requirements" — i.e. what stops them from just getting rid of the concept altogether, and keeping everything — and the answer to that is to look at the marginal OpEx of keeping a page around.