What I think they should at least do is remove penalty for 40+ comments. I see where this is coming from, the desire to always have "quality discussion" effect

What I think they should at least do is remove penalty for 40+ comments. I see where this is coming from, the desire to always have "quality discussion" effect by showing only those comment sections with very few comments, usually quite insightful as it usually come from people interested enough in the often obscure topic, but what it also does is kills discussion. At least they could make penalty growing gradually, not something that suddenly activates as soon as there are 40 comments.