Comments should matter more than votes. A thread with all votes but no comments is a meaningless number, but a thread with all comments but no votes is exactly the same as that thread with votes.

That particular weighting doesn't make sense to me. Clearly some people vote by commenting. Which is as it should be.

I disagree. If you like something, vote for it. If you don't like something, comment on why and don't vote for it. If something just doesn't belong here, flag.

But many people are downvoting with their comments.

Unintentionally, yes, that's the problem.

No, I meant intentionally.

They disagree with the article or what have you and say so in the thread.

Oh. Well, good. I think civil, negative comments have more value than just downvoting.

Interestingly, one of the few ways to vote down an article on HN.