And the self-promotion and upvote begging on Product Hunt is getting even worse (https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=product%20hunt%20upv...) despite promises for improvement.
See previous rant: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8427079
(Why am I repulsed by PH? Not sure, but I tend to lump it in with the whole cargo cult, ping pong tables, beers kegs, fashion and gossip and startups Valley scene. The most common context in which I encounter it is people asking me to vote them up so they can get 'discovered', as if entrepreneurship were Hollywood or Nashville. It's a meta-startup for discussing other people's startups; it's a carbuncle on a vain, self-absorbed slice of our industry. I guess it serves a niche well and I'm just repelled by the niche.)
That being said, when I try to put myself in their shoes, I come up with one possible theory. It is that it is working right now with restricted access and their is a fear that if they open up commenting to everyone, it will hurt the overall product. I disagree but I don't think it has to necessarily be 'elitist' to still result in the current situation.
I actually think the discussion is my main weak point of PH. I tend to just quickly browse the links and then move on. Reading conversations of people I do not know and cannot participate in quickly gets boring for me. I think when the commenting becomes open to me, I will see the time I spend per day on PH increase significantly (most likely at the expense of HN :p )
I recently listened to Ryan from Product Hunt on This Week in Startups, and while I can't remember him addressing this, I do remember getting the impression they have a lot to build and just now are building a team. This could just be one of those things where they didn't want to open the floodgates too soon as they refine the product and scale in traffic. Or it's inherent to the model they're going after..