Who, in particular, said the comments have reduced in quality?

rhollerithdotcom is one. I don't think I am being excessively controversial here. Ebbs and flows of post content are inevitable and even just looking at the voting trends in the post list. There is little shame in such a variation... it is a good sign that people are busy doing real work!

Your post seems weasel-wordy to me as it currently stands.

Perhaps, but it was also polite. I did not (and still am not) providing the explicit link because I don't see it necessary to direct people to the surrounding context. The context represents a situation that was later shown to be a success story in personal development but at that time reflected negatively.