I think "longer" referred to the length of time the question goes unanswered - not the number of characters it took to pose the question.

While you can't quantifiably measure difficulty, it's fair to say that more difficult questions will remain unanswered longer. Easy questions get pounced on. The difficult ones take time.

Read the parent again closely. He/she is talking about time.

The irony of the misunderstanding is exacerbated by the fact that P=NP would in fact get a huge number of points.

Don't you think a proof of P=NP would be worth that karma? ;-)