>True. But the flip side is that comments can outlive their relevance, accuracy, or purpose.

>This is a good reason to reject most comments: they're an additional maintenance cost that can't be automated.

By the same line of reasoning one should reject most code.

A comment that helps the next programmer who's going to look at the code is good. If/when the comment is obsolete, deleting it is easy.

I'm saying this as someone who rarely includes comments in a first commit. Generally I add comments that answer questions that come up in code review, because it's likely that someone else looking at the code will have the same questions my reviewers have.