Agreed with everyone's sentiments.
I don't see "comments" as being useful in the context in a forum. In fact, I found myself first "commenting" unintentionally, then realizing it lost all the formatting (such as paragraphs/line breaks), then reposting as a reply, etc. Comments are just another/unexpected twist confusing occasional users.
And, yes, I've too noticed them changing forum software from time-to-time. Prettier, but, if anything, now harder to navigate to problems related to a particular product. It's "nicer on the eye" but the utility value has decreased, in my opinion.