Wow, this is very well written. I apologize that I am not nearly as eloquent a writer as you are.
I think that your theory in general sounds good, but the problem is that you assume that the emotive comments can be easily ignored. I have seen too many cases where the number one comment is a simple casual dismissal of a new product or idea. This problem is compounded by the layout of this site such that a -1000 scored comment will still appear above the number two comment if it is a reply to the number one comment. Therefore, the amount of attention given to any comment below the number one comment (that is not a child) is very very minimal. To even get to the number two comment requires scrolling past very large amounts of replies and replies to replies.
This is not to say that I think the pending system will fix all these flaws as I dont know. I am waiting to see how it will play out. My point here is simply that there is a need.
Oooh, or maybe folding when the response's value (value meaning the score + initial + decay over time, etc) is below some fraction of the parent it gets folded out.
The situation you describe is the exact reason I read the comments less and less these days. I still like the content that floats to the Hacker News front page, but the fact that the term, "top dismissive comment" exists, and is damn near ubiquitous with the site is a pretty big problem. On Hacker News, rather than simply writing "First!!!" in the comment box, people seemingly write why OP is an idiot for trying, how X was solved years ago, and nothing their start up solves things better.
> I have seen too many cases where the number one comment is a simple casual dismissal of a new product or idea.
The comment must be agreeable to a large crowd and that is why it is number one. "Pending comments" wouldn't solve it at all.
What it may solve is the moderation of comments which are not voted number one, but still hog your attention span by being children of high ranking comment.
However, I don't think "pending comments" is the right solution. A simpler and more effective solution would be folding of low ranking comments (ala Slashdot).
I think that your theory in general sounds good, but the problem is that you assume that the emotive comments can be easily ignored. I have seen too many cases where the number one comment is a simple casual dismissal of a new product or idea. This problem is compounded by the layout of this site such that a -1000 scored comment will still appear above the number two comment if it is a reply to the number one comment. Therefore, the amount of attention given to any comment below the number one comment (that is not a child) is very very minimal. To even get to the number two comment requires scrolling past very large amounts of replies and replies to replies.
This is not to say that I think the pending system will fix all these flaws as I dont know. I am waiting to see how it will play out. My point here is simply that there is a need.