I suspect it may inevitably end up like Reddit. The problem IMO is comment visibility. Even if you're not trying to farm karma, people like their comments to be visible. Everyone wants to have their voice heard. And it seems that short "zinger" comments and jokes are the most effective way to make that happen. The current community does support high effort quality comments well, but I think as we get diluted with more users it's a slippery slide. I hope I'm wrong.