Upon seeing that #17752 is receiving a lot of tips but no answers I thought about an idea that may be interesting for Stacker News mechanics:
Someone tips to a post, but in a way that those tips must be allocated to a future comment. And the comment to which they were allocated is highlighted (maybe parts of the total tipped can be allocated to different comments).
This adds incentive for people with anything important to share to add insightful comments while allowing people to "buy" (good) engagement for a specific topic they want to see more discussed.
Also by making someone responsible for actually reading the comments and distributing the money it reduces attack vectors and people gaming the system.
Ask SN
.