In general online commenting is something I do out of habit. Higher return on time than completely passive media consumption such as watching TV but not that I book under time spent with maximum returns.

I generally think that a shift to massive information consumption of content via TV/radio in the 20st century was something that's bad for the general discourse of ideas in society. Active engagment helps learning.

I also prefer it over chatting in venues such as IRC, because it provides it provides deeper engagement with ideas and leaves more of a footprint. Created content is findable afterwards.

Lesswrong is also a choice to keep me intellecutally grounded. These days I do spent plenty of time thinking in mental frameworks that are not based on reductionist materalism. I do see value of being pretty flexible about changing the map I use to navigate the world and I don't want to lose access to the intellectual way of thinking.

In total I however spent more time than optimal on LW and frequently use it to procrastinate on some other task.