So this has been going on earlier than December, at least as early as October, according to this Disqus blog post (which says they started it in August):

http://blog.disqus.com/post/32684337804/expanding-promoted-d...

So how sure is the OP that he didn't just miss the emails/announcements about it? That said, yes, those links are kind of annoying (especially when unstyled) and can clash with the content.

As much as I want to switch my blog to Octopress, at least I can have a commenting system through Wordpress.