That has been exactly my experience. When I first heard about "show dead" I turned it on out of curiosity and started to find all sorts of interesting and worthwhile comments. Yes, a few trolls too, but fewer of those.

It really bothers my sense of ethics that the scenario you described can happen: someone posting insightful comments for a year and not realizing they are a "ghost". It's a waste of human potential - both for the writer and for those who don't get to read the comments - and the system here is explicitly designed to keep the writer in the dark about the situation.

How is this a good thing?

(I also have showdead for the same reason - reading dissenting opinions can be quite interesting)

It's a good thing if only because the alternative would be a ban, and they would stop posting altogether. They may be a ghost but I see value in their posts - or I wouldn't have showdead on.

This makes me wonder how many users have showdead on?

Actually, I check my username once a week for a hellban precisely because I don't like the idea of being silently censored. An outright ban is far more palatable than realizing after a year that I've just been wasting my time. Just the mere thought of it ruins my desire to participate in the fist place.

Maybe you should be writing for yourself, not for the others?

I write to share ideas/experiences I have. If there are replies, there is a valuable feedback - either as a validation, or as a suggestion of other things I should reconsider. I try to "reward" the valuable inputs by pressing on upvote, even I forget sometimes (upvoting is diverting - I don't really like to spend time on that)

Someday I may be hellbanned. Maybe 90% won't see my posts then, but the 10% that do is what matters - people who see value in dissenting opinions, and may still offer interesting insightful replies

The problem is that if you know you are banned you can just create an extra account and continue trolling.

Perhaps there should be a method for those with "showdead" switched on to petition for a review of a hellbanned user?

An idea I had the other day is a "resurrect" feature. If you have X karma and showdead turned on, you have an upvote link for comments made by hellbanned users (unless a moderator killed that comment specifically). Two upvotes by non-hellbanned users leads to the comment being resurrected, so those without showdead can see it. If a user consistently gets their comments resurrected, they may be eligible to have their entire account resurrected.

That'd be great. I'm always a little sad when I can't upvote a good hellbanned comment.