Stealing back the post like a passed baton, thanks @bosstoaster.
Funny enough, I had issues finding these comments, which I SAW in my activity feed, because when I went to my root post none of these comments existed. I had to go to my root post, go to MY second comment in the chain on the post (by digging it out of the notes), and THEN open the comments on THAT post to come find this.
I submitted feedback. I'll probably pepper this suggestion on the other feedback avenues over the coming days. (They're flooded now. Polite persistence probably carries weight here.)
"Hello! I have a suggestion that I think could be a reasonable middle ground on the Notes broken up by Reblog.
Just 2 modifications:
1] All iterations of a post continue to show an aggregate footer at the bottom with total replies, comments, and likes, from all chains.
2] All notes continue to go to the post's original author, as in show up in their activity, regardless of reblog chain.
With these two things, then the notes-per-reblog no longer cause problems!
All comments and replies would remain findable and engageable, via the aggregate footer at the bottom of the post. This is very important for ongoing engagement--people can only interact with replies if they can find them!
Users would NOT avoid commenting, because they can be assured in the knowledge their comment will no longer fracture the notes (aggregate footer covers that) and will no longer steal the post's engagement from the OP (OP receives all activity). I would not be afraid to comment "This art is amazing!" on someone's artwork, as I would not need to fear fracturing the reblog chain and taking their engagement. Avoiding commenting hesitance is so important as well, because engagement stands to plummet if users all hold their tongue to not "steal" a post.
Even right now, I'm struggling to find useful information on my own posts--posts which I know have comments and replies--because I cannot find which reblog has the replies. Finding comments means finding and stepping through all the comment chains of the entire post to even stand the chance to find what I remember seeing.
This is also making engagement look so small... Posts of mine with 50,000+ notes across different reblog chains and now so sparse and fractured and nearly impossible to sift through for information.
Please consider this suggestion!"