Given that the column notes that only 0.6% of visitors comment, but that the costs can run to twice what is budgeted, they seem to explicitly and transparently

Given that the column notes that only 0.6% of visitors comment, but that the costs can run to twice what is budgeted, they seem to explicitly and transparently acting on that you mistakenly claim are being hidden by "bogus" arguments. I suppose the charitable assumption would be that the parent is a subtle meta comment, designed to call into question the notion that discussion is valuable.