Agreed, John. I think a lot could be done simply with front-end changes to how it's all displayed. Make the comments bar/panel permanently visible and with threads unfolded by default, at least on PC settings. That way people see the ongoing conversation simultaneously with the article.

Medium has a lot of white space on its interface, which is attractive, calming and refreshing in design terms, but does mean that some info iut would be good to see upfront, gets pushed into the background and often overlooked.