Hey, thanks for bringing up the question of whether certain topics are 'downvote magnets', 'hot button issues', etc. I'm fascinated by your observation that 'following a thread over several days is a near hopeless endeavor' - will you say more?
I understand this as an intentional feature of HN.
And good newsreaders were also able to selectively skip a comment and everybody replying to it (e.g. if a discussion devolved into a tangent that was less interesting), instead of a whole subject.