I can't say how much this post needed to be written.
Comments are made to be read - astonishing concept, isn't it? And often later comments refer to an earlier one, so being able to read them in chronological order is not just another feature but should be default.
There's a post in German every Sunday with hundreds of comments - kind of a pub where people just talk with each other. It's great because it heightens the feeling of community but if the comments are not in chronological order it's only a bunch of scrambled words.