> However, look at the dead comments here and, for each, tell us why it would turn HN into a "cesspit."

This is an impossible task and you know it. Asking your opponents to enumerate every dead comment on a thread with hundreds of comments is not approaching the issue in good faith.

Looking at a selection of dead comments on this thread, I see flame-baiting on israel/palestine, flame-baiting on trans and racial issues, assorted comments whose content might have been acceptable if it wasn't 40% profanity by wordcount, a bunch of unnecessary personal attacks, and assorted people redefining words and then asserting that only their new definition is the correct one.

I see basically nothing that would improve HN if it were not dead. I see a lot that would make HN actively worse if it were not dead.