The difference is the awards in here are for actually being of use to the community - most of the SO ones are just for "jumping through hoops" set by the site.
If I had my way agraham (and klaus) would be awarded "Superhero" status on here as they make so much difference to the forum.
It does seem that SO have tried to create a system, where more reliable people's answers weigh more. Unfortunately that does not hold true in the real world, because anyone could come up with the best answer. The moderators there indeed are quite snobbish.
I dont think we need SO, when we have Erel, agraham, klaus, kickaha, XverhelstX, warwound and so many more active contributors who are endless oceans of knowledge.