On one hand, I want to say you should read the thread before posting, on the other hand, if someone reaches the same conclusions independently from the rest, it decreases the likelihood that we're all insane.
I did read the thread but only after my comment was already written. I feel kinda bad about posting but I didn’t want to throw the comment away. (I searched the thread for “small talk” before I started writing and didn’t find anything because everybody who decided to write about German and small talk seems to have decided to write “smalltalk”.)