Otherwise, I enjoyed the look.
To add to what you've said, 9 times out of 10 I'll actually click to scan the comments first, not the article. Comments often provide some summary that indicate whether an article is worth reading or not.
Now, it's opposite. I read a lot of comments and usually don't read the links themselves. From my experience, the value of the links decreases after some time as things inevitably start repeating. Not the same links, but the same ideas, concepts (not always, of course).
I view HN as a forum, where the title of the link is the topic for a thread.