I'd be hesitant to call it a "mistake." I, for one, like the small comment-number areas because it lets the front page be information-dense. If I did have to pick a gripe with it, it'd be nice if posts with no comments were visually distinct from those that do have them.

I end up using the single-quote shortcut in Firefox and just type the number of comments in the article. For instance, the first post in the screen shot has 18 comments; typing: '18<enter> is usually enough to get me to that page.

Even if I used the mouse to click, is it really that hard to land it on that link? I never saw it as an issue.