but have you opened a post with fewer than 3 replies? They end up
in a tiny scroll box at the top of that 1/3 page leaving the rest of
the real estate blank as you scroll through the message trying to make
sense of it.

Replying to my own post? I just tried that and apparently that has
been addressed.
Now if they will just add the older / newer buttons to the bottom of a
thread view, it will nearly be usable.