That's one of the biggest benefits I get out of using HN - pre-selection by taking a quick look at the comments before reading anything.

It has become my habit too. I never click the links directly, always comments section first.

Does anyone else always feel a weird HN specific fomo - "comments or content... I want both!"

I don't. I always go straight for comments, unless I already recognize by the title or domain name that the article is something I'd like to read. Then I skim comments to learn whether the article is worth reading. Even if it isn't, if I want to participate in a thread that's about the article directly (vs. an interesting tangent), I go back and at least skim the article, just to not be that person who comments on TFA without reading it.

Same here. More often than not, there's people in HN who have experience with a topic and can add perspective (and hopefully an impartial view).

More than ever, we need to tone down the clickbait, put it to perspective, and understand if it's something we should give attention to. HN does this in a quick manner

It works especially well with click-baity things where someone has helpfully quoted the key bit in the top comment and you can avoid dealing with popup-riddled sites to find it.

A good rule of thumb to live by indeed.