[entangld]

I think you're a little too harsh. The comment bubbles are helpful.

Your eye might need to jump around more because you're not used to the new design yet. Sometimes an article might say "discuss" which just means 0 comments. This would make that much clearer.

You might say you shouldn't have to "get used to" a good redesign, but after using a website for years, almost everyone would need to overcome old habits.

HN might be designed to compact a large amount of data in a small area, but reading tiny letters isn't exactly good UX.