I am finding the comment/reply distinction confusing - when am I supposed to use each? This is less of a complaint (I have no actionable suggestions) and more just an FYI/observation. :)
Topic on Talk:Structured Discussions
LuisV (WMF): I've found that myself and many others have the same issue. I would prefer if the main post was treated as a "level 0" which all further comments were a reply to, but I don't know if that'd work in all use cases.
Nicereddy: The point of that - that anyone can add a level 0 comment - is to encourage discussion about the topic and to elevate personal thoughts at the same level.
In a standard "everyone replies, except the first poster" conversation, there's a very subtle power dynamic. We want to see if we can't get rid of that.
Jorm (WMF): I can see where you're coming from, how about making the reply button stand out more in order to get users using that rather than the default comment box? Or differentiating "Comment" and "Reply", where "Comment" is a 0 level comment and Reply is a level 1 or below.
Not sure, it's a fairly complicated issue to solve.