I do oftentimes find myself missing the ability to respond to multiple comments at once when perusing other sites like HN. It's super handy being able to quote a multitude of posts all asking the same question and respond with one answer. Or being able to redirect one poster to look at another.

The forced anonymity/lack of account names is also a big plus. Misinformation can obviously be perpetuated by appealing to bias (look at /pol/) but you lose the “forum celebrity” shit that gives power users the ability to gain credence simply based on name and eventually derail discussions simply by showing up