It's possible that it's more insidious than simply trying to get high-profile users to submit links to their articles. When you try to submit a duplicate link, the system will redirect you to the older submission and cause you to automatically upvote it. If you can get a handful of people to 'submit' the same link, you've managed to boost your article's ranking and likely will get it on the front page.
I've been on the leader board for a couple of years, and I do get plenty of random requests about starting HN meetups (I host Hackers and Founders -- Silicon Valley ). I also get a number of random pings to give feedback on people's sites, which I'm generally happy to do.
That being said, I've never been approached to submit a post.
