eh - I think Hacker News is qualitatively different. There's a lot of shared values here, and low-effort comments are actively discouraged. It's a lot more pleasant to read the comments here than on a place like Reddit, even in some of the higher-functioning subs.
Maybe it's the way comments are weighted here, or the fact that post scores aren't shared, but it's definitely the best place on the web for me.
It's quantitatively different, not qualitatively different.
The non-contributors here here speak in full sentences, cite cherry picked links to back up their assertions of the local dogma and link to the Wikipedia page of whatever trope they want to reference rather than just stating it. These sorts of comments perform the same social utility (tribe signaling basically) to the people who peddle them as saying "yikes" and "the front fell off" on reddit and the snarky bigoted quips they use on the chans. Such non-contributions seem to be of roughly the same prevalence on all platforms, ours are just the most polished.
Maybe it's the way comments are weighted here, or the fact that post scores aren't shared, but it's definitely the best place on the web for me.