Thanks for picking apart my claim, folks! Rather than modify this claim, I think I'll work on a Post approach, probably with a few different linked claims in it.
In retrospect, I don't like the value comparison structure of the claim.
I'm used to formulating pseudo-hypotheses in a way that feel testable to me, and relative comparison can be easier than picking and measuring some absolute value. And I do think that in any project each effort is traded off against other efforts. But the claim focused as much on the value of reputation systems, rather than the value of structured discussions, and that muddied the discussion.
Since I'm using this to help get a feel for how good claims, posts, etc are crafted, this was very helpful.