I'm not dismissing opinions, just saying I understand that one could reasonably want to close a comment section for these reasons. There is more than one stance

I'm not dismissing opinions, just saying I understand that one could reasonably want to close a comment section for these reasons. There is more than one stance on the issue. I think the onus is on the reader, not the author, to be critical and form counterarguments. A noncritical reader will ignore good comments or the fallacies in bad comments just as easily as they will in the article itself. Adding comment noise is a very indirect method of encouraging critical thinking in readers.