Phoronix comes to mind.
So, their main goal wasn’t to hide the comments, but push people to forums where there is a better format for conversation.
At least that’s how it used to work.
Then the Soap Box took over the entire site and all that's left is standard Internet garbage.
I mostly stopped paying attention to the comment section after that, and Ars in general.
I think you're misunderstanding or misrepresenting them. The fight to have the most jaded or pessimistic take, the hottest flame, the spiciest rant, it's all so predictable and it's just a bunch of the same people saying the same things and agreeing with each other for the nth time. It brings nothing new to the table, and the posts that actually respond to the new information get drowned out or worse downvoted for insufficient vitriol.
Is HN really the last remaining forum for science and technology conversations? If so... very depressing.
Honestly, HN isn’t very good anymore either. The internet is basically all trolling, bots and advertising. Often all at once.
Oh and scams, there’s also scams.
Still often good comments here, but certain topics devolve into a bad subreddit quickly. The ethos of the rules hasn't scaled with the site.