It would be great to sort the comment threads not by time, but by rating.
This would save the search for interesting discussion threads among a large number of comments. Also, the sense would be to leave a comment very first. And for nonsense and flood it would be enough to spend one minus, and for the cause there would be more votes.
Yes, if we were in a fairy tale, then a comment with a positive rating would affect the rating and position of parental comments, or even the rating of habratopik. But then there would be a personal interest to put pluses to comments and answers addressed to you. So take into account the total weight of positive child comments for sorting will not go.