And again, you're completely missing the point. One user's UI clutter is another user's essential UI component. Doing actual UX studies on your interface is essential (which I assume Disqus has done thoroughly).
Your original comments claimed that a mythical "the user" doesn't care about the Reactions, Community, or star buttons, citing "common sense." That's not a UX study. That's you trying to spin your personal opinion as fact. Which is cute, but is not useful criticism in the slightest.
Just by looking at the result it's obvious they haven't.
That's not a UX study
Exactly. It's the common sense that you would possess if you had been involved with any similar project of significant size. And I'll proceed to criticize obvious violations of well established common sense without performing studies on other peoples sites, thank you very much.
"the user" doesn't care about the Reactions, Community, or star buttons
Yes, it's still common sense. And quoting what I said does still not make a counter-argument. If the user cares about "Reactions" then where did all those useful pingback-listings go that used to trail every blog post? If he cares about detached community-silos then why can't even Apple make one work? And when was the last time you've seen a useful star-rating on a comment-thread outside an established forum?
That's you trying to spin your personal opinion as fact.
My spin must be pretty good then since you still haven't even tried to dispute any of my claims or references. Oh wait, actually you have once. Turned out not so well...
Your original comments claimed that a mythical "the user" doesn't care about the Reactions, Community, or star buttons, citing "common sense." That's not a UX study. That's you trying to spin your personal opinion as fact. Which is cute, but is not useful criticism in the slightest.