I've found quite the opposite. Most developers hate comments because they represent extra work. That work manifests itself in the creation and upkeep of the code. We've found that addressing comments as part of our code review process made a big difference in keeping things up to date.

Regarding the issue of expressiveness: I never find myself commenting about what is obvious in the code itself. Often I'm writing about some thinking behind why something was done a certain way OR identifying expectations of downstream systems that can't be expressed using code. Code enough in environments where you're interacting with multiple disparate systems and you'll find that some well placed comment providing the broader context for the code is extremely helpful to folks encountering the code the 1st time or to yourself a year later when you're incorporating a new feature and have forgotten about all the concerns wrapped up in the code.

With the todo issue- we require folks to include a JIRA issue number along with the todo. If something was left undone then it needs to be recognized where we manage our backlog and flagged as a technical debt to be addressed.