I agree with you that the forum rule is actually easy and clear to understand just like the once you mentioned, however there some rules or things that newbies may not actually know at the beginning like AI rules, using translator to post in another local board, cheating on contest, posting things that are not verified, begging of merit, creating thread recently created by another member, spamming, buying of account, etc.
I think the desire to grow fast make some newbies miss out on some certain things they should know.
I understand that real newbies, especially those new in discussion forums might find here a bit hard to cope, but the fact remains that most newbies come here with the intention of making money fast and not learning and engaging properly, most of those newbies that fall in the second category are the ones more vulnerable to failing the rules.
The first thing to do when you come into a new environment is to look around for the rules of engagement and ask if you don't see them, the
Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ is enough to get any newbie started, good thing it's still being updated to reflect current rules that unfolds. Cheating in contests is an intentional act, contests has it's own rules as well, so I don't think there's much of an excuse for newbies here.