Yeah, I had considered this, but I can't imagine the effect continuing beyond the un-greying of the parent post. I can see it rallying to that point, though.

I should also note that I've seen a lot of early-greyed posts come back from the dead after 30 minutes or so even without the "omgwtfisgoingon" posts underneath them as well. Sometimes even becoming clear winners on their strata of the post's comments.