[protonimitate]

>However, it does give me some comfort. When it’s not gamed, do other HNers also feel that a high comment:code ratio probably indicates quality?

I think people should spend more time commenting/documenting across the board. I'd much rather have verbose commenting that is unhelpful that I can skip, versus minimal commenting and code that is overly optimized and hard to parse. The less thinking I have to do to pick up where the last person left off, the better.

I would say that yes, in general high comment:code ratio tends to be higher quality.