I think comments being "neglected" for so long by people not upvoting them due to financial reasons hurt the platform a lot long term. When I first considered making an account on steem I remember the fact that comments getting some nice upvotes convinced me to give the platform a try. Otherwise it's daunting to start writing long post when you haven't done it before. Besides people like to socialize in the comment section and getting rewarded for that is awesome
I totally agree with you, being rewarded for commenting stimulates a lot, either by the author of the post, or by some comment curation project. This is the case of this account that goes on the hunt for valuable comments on Hive, looking for users committed to this hive. In fact, my penultimate post is just about this, about whether a comment curation trail is necessary. You can read it and leave me your impression or, failing that, express it here.
sounds great to me :)