I think it's more that long, detailed, well-supported points tend to get more karma than simple one-liners. IIRC, PG posted once that there was a big correlation between comment length and score.
I've noticed much less of a correlation between popularity and score than I would've expected - certainly much less than at Reddit, where you can write a detailed page-long comment that completely demolishes the parent's argument, and then have it sit at -1 because voters on Reddit reflexively downvote articles that don't fit their preconceptions. Here, that same comment is often at +10 or more.
I'd definitely agree that it's far worse at Reddit. And I hear you on comment length, but I took care not to mention length because it's possible for well-written, long comments to make a widely accepted point.
I've noticed much less of a correlation between popularity and score than I would've expected - certainly much less than at Reddit, where you can write a detailed page-long comment that completely demolishes the parent's argument, and then have it sit at -1 because voters on Reddit reflexively downvote articles that don't fit their preconceptions. Here, that same comment is often at +10 or more.