Yes, this non-linear idea seems very interesting. I have read several discussions on various boards with much hand-wringing about the best way of sorting comments - by time, by votes, by user rep, by some sort of weighted average of the above? Suddenly things get rather complicated as people try to decide how the weights should be balanced. But this idea of showing multiple different feeds side-by-side is very refreshing. Two (or even three?) feeds with different weightings and (and relative sizes!) could provide a better balance than what we are used to.

(As an aside, it would be entertaining to take it to an extreme - seeing the top voted comments also shows you the bottom voted, most controversial also shows least, etc. A sort of anti-echo-chamber measure.)