tripflagging is in a very special place tbh.
it allows the maintenance of a consistent identity without actually breaking anonymity. it's very good for playing a character or building context for a given post without becoming an outright avatarfag.
specifically, avatar and to a lesser extent name use invites a "how was your day?" kind of discussion and a coherent identity, which leads to these circlejerky little social groups. tripflagging remains topic-prominent, you think "ah, i remember this angry cat poster from the thread on public transport" or whatever, but it's far less likely to invite "ah, angry cat - how are you? and your ailing mother?" type circlejerks. you will grow to know more and more of angry cat's political opinions, but always remain ignorant of their personality.
there's also always the possibility it's just someone else with the same ideology or flag choice. you know you're dealing with a leninhat, but is it that leninhat? in that ambiguity lies the key that retains an "anonymous" style of discussion around events and ideas rather than around people.
in the tedious desperation to import 4chan derived culture (it's just attention whoring! it's reddit! disapprove!) lies ignorance of the ways in which /leftypol/ can-and-has evolved imageboard based discussion. a voluntary flag is less anonymous than nothing, but more anonymous than a name or avatar. it signifies something, but not much. though 4chan /pol/ has flags, it never evolved to use them in the way that 8/leftypol/ did, and it's a shame they're less common now.