> thoughtfully worded comments
That's what makes me disagree. I want honest comments and thoughtful reading.
To break that down further:
We have a comment "How is this different from X?" which can be interpreted literally, as an honest question, or with the assumption that what he actually meant is "This is stupid because we already have X".
One solution is to encourage people to write "No offense to the project, It looks interesting but I honestly don't know what differentiates it from X, and if you could explain it in contrast to X I will understand it better since I already understand X"
That's ... ok, but the writer will never anticipate every possible misinterpretation so you will have verbose comments full of fluffy meaningless language and still have the same problem.
The alternative is encouraging people to think about the phrase "benefit of the doubt", what it means and why it's a well known phrase in the first place.
If someone asks "How is this different from X" then you take it to mean what it says, you don't try to guess at what possible negative thing he might have meant. So the replies would all take that comment seriously.
What's the downside? Someones snarky comment would be read as honest and there would be an answer. Who's going to reply with "I actually meant that sarcastically"? Some people might, but they'll just look foolish.
If the choice is between:
1. encouraging a culture where questions are taken as honest questions or
2. one where every question is scrutinized for the slightest possible clue of hidden negative meaning and you have to fill your comment with false praise and legal and marketing language to avoid any possibility of the suggestion of offense
Then the answer is obvious to me.