Not only that. Why the text submited in the starting post is grey? That's a strange decision to me.

E.g.: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31418908

I emailed dang about this once, though I didn't find the reply terribly illuminating:

> I think the original intention was probably to de-emphasize the top text a little, relative to the comments below, so it doesn't come across as so authoritative. But that's just a guess. I agree that it's low-contrast. I'm reluctant to mess with the existing design, but we'll think about it.

> the reply

I see the reply corresponds to what I would have guessed:

tradition.

I just assumed all self-posts are hated and immediately downvoted into illegibility.

I like fading garbage comments, it is a quick visual indicator there's probably nothing of value in that comment. Rarely good comments are greyed, and in those cases I upvote to try to counter-act it. Doesn't seem like a problem to me.

thats the problem, its too quick, too dismissable, to easy to not engage in any useful discussion, proliferating echo chambers even quicker.

useful discussion is the opposite of an echo-chamber circle jerk.

lowering the barrier to dismissing valid criticism does not fit the bill, it does the opposite.

Almost every greyed out comment I've ever seen is garbage.

It's either rude or offensive, an obvious bad faith take on its parent comment, or is just plain spam.

It is incredibly rare to see a greyed out comment and think "wow that guy got downvoted just because people disagreed with them", unlike reddit.

I don't really see this happening that often. Greyed out comments are almost always trash in my experience.

> Downvote me and see - this comment fades into contrast-obscurity.

50/50 chance you get an upvote instead because the buttons are so small and close together on mobile. This is where I really like the Apollo app for Reddit. On it, you swipe left or right on the comment to access actions like reply, upvote, downvote. Similar concept in a lot of mobile mail clients for archiving or deleting.

> swipe left or right on the comment to access actions like

Not surprising for a product that also in other appearances promotes fast use and quick reaction instead of pondered response.

It's a third party app. It's also the difference between trying to click a small button versus using a swipe gesture. You still have to write the reply. Not sure what your gripe is here, I'm talking about how their UI is more friendly towards mobile users.