The decoding that I would like to see is for each person to click the Reply button under the post to which he or she is replying, rather than clicking the Reply button at the bottom of the thread. Unless I’m misunderstanding the interface, this would make it clear which is the post of interest, rather than making subsequent readers guess at the flow of the conversation. As an example, see AT&T Joins T-Mobile, Verizon in Deploying 5G Home Internet - #4 by julio and AT&T Joins T-Mobile, Verizon in Deploying 5G Home Internet - #5 by julio, which appear to have been started by clicking Reply at the bottom of the thread. In defense of Julio, it is fairly clear what posts prompted his responses, but that isn’t always the case, and there was no reason that I can see not to click Reply under the post to which he is responding.
In the case of this post, I am not replying to any other poster’s comment, but to the topic of the thread, so I clicked the Reply at the bottom of the thread. Am I misunderstanding something?