You're assuming that all/most users are trying to achieve maximal average karma, even at the cost of getting to comment on what they feel like voting on. This

You're assuming that all/most users are trying to achieve maximal average karma, even at the cost of getting to comment on what they feel like voting on. This seems like a rather poor assumption to me. For instance, am I mindful of not having an avg. karma that makes me look like a twit? Sure. But do I let that keep me from posting comments that I wish to post, just because I fear they will get low ratings? No, I know that things will tend to work out overall, because from what I've observed, if you make an honest effort to not be a total idiot on here, you will end up with a decent rating. I trust the userbase, basically. It saddens me that so many users here, apparently including some of the site's creators and authority figures, seem to lack such faith to an extent that makes them want to hide features of the site from the userbase, even though a strong majority of the userbase says they want to see those features, in poll after poll, without exception. I understand that the users are not always right, and that one can often achieve better results from ignoring the userbase. I just don't think this is one of those times.