Thanks for this helpful post @Ewaade_3A
The name of the community is, not casually, Local Guides Connect, because it is a community for connecting people from all around the world, all connected through their passion for Google Maps.
Getting badges, or likes, or solution, is not the scope of participating in Connect, BTW many things, especially in springtime, that more badges will help to be selected for Connect Live.
This is totally wrong and, on the contrary, acting on an appropriate way to get more badges, or more points in Google Maps, can result in a negative result. What Google is looking for is "Quality and Contents’.
So, responding on a post is very important, because is the real acknowledgement of the hard work spent to “create” contents.
Regarding your badge, @MortenCopenhagen , first of all “Congratulations”, you deserve more than a 5000 likes badge.
Regarding the number shown on your profile, remember that in Connect “we see what we can see”. Let imagine for a second that you invited a local guide to “stay on topic”, then a Googler passed, gave you a like and moved the post out of Connect. You will not be able to see your like, but the system will count it.
For the same reason people see different numbers depending if they have access to some exclusive are, or if they don’t.