The new system sucks.  And that's its good feature.

I'm being asked to review comments where I haven't read the article in question.  Nobody is about to go read another article and/or a string of comments about a completely unrelated topic in order to post a comment re the article they are currently reading.  So what to do - just click at random and continue.  That's a fancy way of saying that many (most?) of the ratings shown aren't based on the opinion or the article they comment on.

BTW, this isn't the first time I've seen this approach.  I've commented on articles about national issues in small town US papers and been asked to rate comments about local politicians.  Why would I read about the mayor of an unincorporated town of 2,500 people?  So just click anything that comes to hand.