I did not decide not to do so; it did not occur to me as a possibility. (I now recall that I once did create an Open Thread just as you suggest — though almost simultaneously with someone else, so I deleted mine.)
I meant that (my perception at the time of creating this post was that) the LW community no longer uses the open-thread format. Given the immediate success of yours, I conclude that I was wrong.
[I'd put this in an open thread, but those don’t seem to happen these days, and while this is a quote it isn't a Rationality Quote.]
— Geoffrey K. Pullum, Language Log, “Never fails: semantic over-achievers”, December 1, 2011
This seems like it might lead to something interesting to say about the design of minds and the usefulness of generalization/abstraction, or perhaps just a good sound bite.