I agree @Kumaarsantosh. Not being transparent just doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would I want to add photos that no one can see and use to make better decisions about visiting the place? Is it just to earn the points?
In actual fact, we have been a little more liberal. Local Guides whose Maps profile is set to private are excluded from the Leaderboards based on views. For example, they might make it onto the points leaderboards.