Happy New Year to you too! And yes, authenticity should be a general rule on Hive, and in social media in general.
And I agree about comments, but I also believe some people are better at pushing out new content, while other are only triggered (in the good sense, like activated) only by reaction. So some are "by nature" article writers, while other are commenters (or "reply guys"). With that being said, yes, a few more "reply guys", with meaningful comments and reactions, will be good for Hive.
All the best!