and that's the worst of HN

often the author would prefer this discussion to be in THEIR comment section for once

Maybe, but I prefer a fast, consistent UI to quickly read about a topic and see if it is interesting. That is super fast here, but every site has a different comment section, so I have to a)look for it b) parse the different style c) parse whether all comments are just from spambot accounts

99% of the time I look at the comments and then if I find the discussion interesting will go to the original link.

To go directly to the link, it would have to be really compelling.

That is really their problem. Most users don't want to create separate accounts for each website they visit just to take part in a discussion.

Sometimes I don't even read the comments and go straight to saying something.