It's true - I use those comments to provide detailed explanations, which I often link back to. They're sort of the case law of HN moderation. It's my intention to someday compile them into some sort of compendium of moderation heuristics or something...not sure yet what that should look like.

Entirely

This feels like it's swerving into just the sort of cross-examination that I describe in the comments I just took the time to dig up for you. My purpose in doing that was not to tell you "see? anybody can just go and find these". It was, rather: here is a set of past explanations about the question you're raising, which describe our thinking on this topic. If you want to understand why we don't do what you're suggesting, you'll probably find the answer there. On the other hand, if you have a specific point that I haven't answered in the past, I'd very much like to know what it is.

The intention of all of those moderation comments, search links, etc., is to provide helpful information to people in specific contexts. Nobody's pretending that it's a global documentation system; no one's "cheating" or trying to fool anyone or trick people out of what is rightfully theirs. We're simply trying to answer people's questions and satisfy their curiosity while also staying focused on the overall purpose of the site.