The very best submissions get virtually no discussion.

One measurement to make might be the votes divided by comments.

Let V = votes

Let C = comments

Let IT = 1.0

Let R = V/C

If R > IT then the article is "worth IT"

Let "the paper it's written on" be 0.1.

If R < "the paper it's written on" then it's not worth the paper it's written on (not that it's written on paper, but you get the idea).

But all this is tinkering around the edges, and doesn't feel like it's significant. Perhaps a new model of how a site like this works at all is necessary.