That makes sense, it's just that we've noticed over the years how it still degrades thread quality. I think it's a medium-is-the-message thing to some extent. It's no big deal (and can be quite fun) to call $whoever a $whatever in small conversations, e.g. over a drink with friends, but on a large public internet form the dynamics change a lot.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html