I thought you had something different in mind, but if it is this, I don't understand in what way is the solution of charging only for immediate replies to bad comments unsatisfactory. When I proposed this variant of the feature in the ticket, the thread you cited was exactly of the kind I was thinking about.
On the other hand, threads like this are rare, so (1) you seem to exaggerate their impact and (2) a month that you've suggested in the ticket won't be enough to see whether the direct-reply-fee solution helps, as we only get a few of these in a year.
Has anyone yet mentioned or reported that for the last couple days, the "karma for last 30 days" is showing zero for everyone? And that we no longer can see the top contributors for the last 30 days either?
Do we have an explanation or estimation for a bugfix on this?