LW if anything is remarkably bad at this kind of gardening.
I agree, yet for some reason suspect that your ideal would see an entirely different subset of comments downvoted to oblivion and suspect I would just leave if you had your way (and that you would do likewise if I had my way). From what I have seen I'd also leave in an instant if Razib had that kind of power.
This is the advantage of having the moderation influence distributed (among multiple moderators or in this case just voting) rather than in the hands of one individual. Neither one of us has enough power to change the forum such that it is intolerable to the other. The failure mode only comes when the collective judgement is abysmal and even then it is less catastrophic to one ego holding sway.
Really? Honestly I think I would find a forum moderated by you well worth visiting and depending on how much time you put into it, might be much better than LW.
I think we probably agree on 90% of posts that should be down voted but aren't.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.