For threads created in less than 24 hours, why not only display comment scores for comments with over X points? Solves the issue of bickering back and forth but also lets comments which have significant votes get easily scanned.
On threads older than 24 hours there is no reason to hide, so just always display comments if older than 24hrs.
On threads older than 24 hours there is no reason to hide, so just always display comments if older than 24hrs.
Just a thought, seems like it might work.