I barely ventured to the Lending section so I might be wrong, but IIRC, there are instances in the past where members with high reputation --or even "moderate" ones like your example-- used their account as means of collateral, it's like saying, "my Hero rank speak for itself, I will repay the loan or anyone can bombard the account with negative trust." So yeah, unless my memory served me wrong --and there is a high probability of it, given I barely venture to the section-- "digital account" is a valid "collateral" for some.
The value of bitcointalk.org accounts was inflated for a while there, especially in the ICO days of 2017 and 2018 when signature campaigns were very lucrative. During that era (and before,) there were some lenders that would take accounts as collateral. I don't want to mention names, and it isn't important because most are no longer active in lending or in general. A lot of those deals happened behind the scenes, and the account would end up being sold if the borrower were to default.
As DT started clamping down on account sales, the practicality of accepting accounts as collateral quickly waned. That hasn't had much of an affect on high ranking accounts being given unsecured loans however, since the value of the account is still considered by the lender, but more in terms of what the account is worth to the borrower himself, not what the account is worth to the lender as a potential commodity to sell.
