It is a little irritating in some cases (depending on what they actually post), but I'm not sure it needs "fixing" as such; I've seen the two combined responsibly. My own pet peeve is when a 3k+ user posts a reply like:

This has already been discussed here.

rather than using a close vote. And even for a 50+ user it should be a comment IMO. Or maybe a "close as duplicate" vote should take less rep, since you are forced to qualify it with a related question... 1k or 500, for example.

It is a little irritating in some cases (depending on what they actually post), but I'm not sure it needs "fixing" as such; I've seen the two combined responsibly. My own pet peeve is when a 3k+ user posts a reply like:

This has already been discussed in this (SOFU) question.

rather than using a close vote. And even for a 50+ user it should be a comment IMO. Or maybe a "close as duplicate" vote should take less rep, since you are forced to qualify it with a related question... 1k or 500, for example.