I said adding proof of a real identity would have some impact, but it would create more problems than it solved, thus it would not improve things.
> The fact remains that adding any sort of friction should be expected to cut down the number of asses
It should also be expected to cut down on the number of users. My argument is that if your objective is to improve the quality of the comments there are more effective ways of doing it, like effective moderation schemes.
> I don't see why requiring authentication via a service that's generally not anonymous (Twitter or GitHub) is a bad idea
Because it's not effective. It raises the barrier to entry, excluding several users who would add value to discussions, without providing any meaningful level of protection. Also, neither of them, as far as I am aware, enforces a real name policy, so I'm not sure what you mean by them being "generally not anonymous."