Like I said above I was really skeptical of the comment reward pool at first but now I'm really excited about it. The discussion will become so much more intense and valuable as soon as it is implemented.
The first person to upvote a comment on the new fork will see his upvote worth more than a thousand but more to the point I really think this will be a major benefit to Steem.
How do you know this? Are you sure it won't simply lead to more spam and abuse that's less visible than parent posts...which most people don't even read now?
You're bringing up great points. I think the upside will make up for the downside.