This format continues to fall short on long threads

I can't help but notice that this format continues to fall short of expectations on threads that are large. Any time a discussion gets going, it gets buried under the "show more" buttons, which are way too common and reveal too little each time they are clicked. New posts in a long thread never make it to front when sorted by the default "Best" selection because they don't have enough upvotes. Selecting "Recent" makes following discussions difficult because posts don't remain recent for long and posts in reply to other posts do not show up it seems.

Selecting "Show as flat" fails to show who replied to who unless you specifically click "show parent" on every post, making it a mess and nearly impossible to follow.

The Patch Forecasts are an excellent example as to why this format does not scale well for serious discussions. They don't even feel worth posting in unless you are one of the first 50 people to post. I think the environment here is much better than GD, but this format is incapable of replacing the traditional thread format.

I see a couple ways of fixing this. One possibility is to allow a "do not hide anything" selection so every post in a thread is displayed. And in doing so, widen the area where posts are actually displayed or allow side scorlling. There is a ton of wasted space on both sides that could be used for displaying longer nested discussions. This would be heavier on the resources, which is why it would have to be optional.

Or, turn the flat view into a more traditional forum format, that shows all parents automatically and can be selected as a default preferred way to view threads.

Just my take on Community Beta over the last few months.