I love the Stackoverflow discussion format

Reading the article on stackoverflow on bad habits the other day (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/164432?sort=votes) I noticed how much I loved their discussion format.

Generally, discussion boards for techies opt for full threading, while nontechie boards are completely flat. Both methods have significant flaws that annoy me to no end.

Stackoverflow has a format that I hadn't seen so far: A flat list of answers (sortable by score or date), with a flat, chronological list of comments per answer (hidden by default).

I love it! I think that it might be a superior choice for almost any forum.

Has anyone seen it before? Does it have drawbacks?