#Fix the problem instead of hiding the symptoms

People don't answer in comments because they hate the site or can't find the answer box. People put "answers" in comments because it solves a problem.

I know that stackexchange really loves the format of asking a precise well-phrased and well-researched question which is then answered with a precise well-phrased and well-researched answer. Unfortunately that's not always how it goes. Sometimes the question comes from a misunderstanding. Sometimes you have an incorrect assumption. Sometimes you cannot phrase your question properly because you are asking about a thing you don't know about.

For example when you have a question of the form "How do I do X?" someone might want to answer "There is an obvious answer Y, but that is a trap." That is not a proper answer, or at least it shouldn't be. But it also doesn't ask for clarification, so it should not be a comment either. It's also too important not to say. So people just put it in a comment anyway, because it's the best of the existing options.

While the community is fairly good at deleting those comments it is extremely frustrating to have your valuable contributions deleted which can lead to more problems later on.

#There are valuable contributions that are neither answers nor comments At least not answers and comments that are currently accepted. Identify what those are (besides the above example). Find a place for them. Once you do that "comment misuse" and more importantly frustrating users will be less frequent.

In case you think there is no such thing as a valuable contribution that is neither an answer nor a comment I propose you use the following rule: Instead of flagging or deleting comments that are answers convert them into answers. You will quickly discover that many of those comments that were being deleted for being answers are not answers either.

Fix the problem instead of hiding the symptoms

People don't answer in comments because they hate the site or can't find the answer box. People put "answers" in comments because it solves a problem.

I know that stackexchange really loves the format of asking a precise well-phrased and well-researched question which is then answered with a precise well-phrased and well-researched answer. Unfortunately that's not always how it goes. Sometimes the question comes from a misunderstanding. Sometimes you have an incorrect assumption. Sometimes you cannot phrase your question properly because you are asking about a thing you don't know about.

For example when you have a question of the form "How do I do X?" someone might want to answer "There is an obvious answer Y, but that is a trap." That is not a proper answer, or at least it shouldn't be. But it also doesn't ask for clarification, so it should not be a comment either. It's also too important not to say. So people just put it in a comment anyway, because it's the best of the existing options.

While the community is fairly good at deleting those comments it is extremely frustrating to have your valuable contributions deleted which can lead to more problems later on.

There are valuable contributions that are neither answers nor comments

At least not answers and comments that are currently accepted. Identify what those are (besides the above example). Find a place for them. Once you do that "comment misuse" and more importantly frustrating users will be less frequent.

In case you think there is no such thing as a valuable contribution that is neither an answer nor a comment I propose you use the following rule: Instead of flagging or deleting comments that are answers convert them into answers. You will quickly discover that many of those comments that were being deleted for being answers are not answers either.