My perception is that the limit on the thread is working well. The number of flags has substantially reduced and Mods are no longer trying to hit a moving target. The alternative to slowing the thread was closing it. We’ve found that people will start flogging their MQA dead horses in some other thread if they don’t have an outlet, so we prefer to keep it localised.
This slowing of the thread is very deliberately not a natural conversation. Allowing people to repeatedly respond to each other in real time has not worked.
Before posting in the thread people should ask themselves whether they are actually saying something interesting which has not been said before and usefully adds to the debate. My view is that very few posts have met that test in the last three years.