Lots of comments are basically just a reaction to the headline (bringing up questions/complaints which the article addresses without referencing the article's p

Lots of comments are basically just a reaction to the headline (bringing up questions/complaints which the article addresses without referencing the article's points). It's not really that surprising, engagement in any community is largely driven by a desire to participate in a discourse around interesting topics. I do think it results in several levels of conversation happening at the same time around a topic though.