Nick -- genealogy is a form of play -- fair enough -- none of us are getting paid for what we do on WikiTree, so yes, if it stops being fun, we're outta here.
But the thing with a playground is we have to learn how to play together. If on this playground person A is having fun by doing things that make person B not have fun, then there need to be some conversations to help figure out how we can do thing in such a way that everybody has fun, and not just some. And that's the purpose of this conversation.
What hasn't been addressed yet is that we encourage people to spend time improving profiles so that they look nice and present facts about the person profiled clearly and coherently. We try to get the LNAB right and if we realize it isn't, we change it. We try to get facts sourced, and we praise people who help create a well-sourced profile. We encourage people to care about the appearance of a profile, and we encourage adding photographs. One can even add a pretty background to a profile -- not something that appeals to me, but I mention it as an illustration of our support of people who do what they can to improve a profile.
And then we have comments. Given the red ink message that shows up if someone thinks a comment has served its purpose and is now simply cluttering the profile, I will say that I understand it to be current WikiTree policy to NEVER delete a comment. That means that people who want to improve a profile can change anything on the profile to improve it -- even the LNAB when appropriate, except comments, over which they are expected to exercise no control. If that is a correct understanding, then it becomes painful whenever a comment is posted on a profile on my watchlist, because somebody has just put something there over which I am expected to exercise less control than any other part of the profile.
Now, I don't think forever-comments displayed on the profile page itself ARE a correct understanding of what a lot of us think or want, but because there are mixed messages, the playground, in your analogy, is becoming less fun. People on WikiTree have different ways of having fun and they are in conflict with each other. My hope -- and my intent in bringing this topic up -- is to try to surface what has been unexpressed so that we can find ways of playing that are fun for everyone and nobody feels they have to leave the playground!