I'm not quite sure if this meta question was a question or a rant wrapped as statement wrapped as a question; but I'll answer it, in so far as a non-question can be answered*.
Are Politics.SE users unaware of the proper use of comments?
No.
I see. You want elaboration for your... ahem... question.
When I have the slightest expectation of the questions or answers being cleaned of their rhetorical tricks or fuzzy fluffy ambiguity - this is what my comments address, no more no less; reactions to said criticism notwithstanding.
Now, I can not say I don't get dragged down to the level of beasts in the field when the commentary is either 1) flat-out ignored; 2) argued incessantly on the basis of Equivocation and Fallacy of the Beard; or 3) applied but with no effect on future conduct so it ends up between contest of stamina between partisan warriors and boring policy-wonks wishing the keep the site neutral.
To tackle user1873
and DA
's debate from a different angle:
Some people consider that politics is a zero-sum game of opinion and mind-share. Indeed some people consider polarised bickering as "democracy" at its finest - instead of at its avoidable worst. This attitude should be strongly discouraged and penalised; because it will (if it hasn't already) turn politics.se into a free floating morass of opinions wrapped as facts and then voted on like a bleeding popularity poll - as if this is a meaningful substitute for neutrality in the first place.
I can not seem to convey this distinction to a highly active minority of the participants - because if they had to chose between an "enlivening" partisan tug-o-war (a subreddit forum spun into the disguise of Q&A site) or "boring" site of applied political science - they would drop off the site entirely.
The voluntary nature of internet participation means that unless the conduct expected of participants is stated very clearly and enforced consistently, we get precisely the worse excesses of highly polarised and highly active minorities in a voluntary electoral system replete with informal physical and intellectual disenfranchisement of the un-polarised majority.
* Non-questions are of course, all the rage in this version of politics.se.