Thing I'm wondering is what happens to the tags that you use but that are not officially listed in the topics list? I guess they stick to the post and can be found but there's no way to index/sort them without matching a specific one?
Anyway, I share your sentiment re the 'magical things' you're expecting to be happening. Some of the greatest things here for me are the little ones like the scaling of the page works beautifully while photos are always kept in frame. The simple separation of hot trending promoted and new is awesome. The minimalist layout just works so well. I got so sick of convoluted, overly stylized and engineered page layouts that in the end become totally useless if you're someone like me who needs things to work fast and reliably.
Got a new follower my man, thanks for the post keep it up!