From the blockchain's perspective a comment is a post, they're functionally equivalent. But as you've highlighted they are not the same from a user point of view.
You've given me something to think about here. Maybe there's a side chain or even off chain solution for some of that. But because of the post / comment equivalency for the moment this is the way it's going to be unless people power up.
Btw, do you have links to a few examples where they are saying it's because of spam?
Cool if you can figure out a way to solve that issue. They are 2 completely separate things as far as a user is concerned for sure!
If you find a solution, please let me know. I would be thrilled to see that happen and would of course want to know about it.
Regarding the places where "they are saying its because of spam"... I assume you want to see some of the officials make statements regarding that... Here is one just from this post from the #1 man himself @ned:
Link:
If you want more examples then let me know, its the standard reply from the people that defend the system. And don't get me wrong, I don't like spam either and I think some of these changes are great. But if we don't find a solution to letting people comment freely (or at a minimum reasonably), then all the good changes will not be able to be witnessed by more than a handful.
Thank you for your understanding of the issue, that is definitely cool of you to "get it"!