Why do so many people answer in the comments under the question, instead of writing a separate answer?

Question

Toaster

Good afternoon,
I just signed up for Toaster and so far I am far from this community, but there is a desire to be active.
I noticed that the vast majority of questions do not have answers, but as soon as you start reading them, you understand that the answer is given in the comments under the question and it is very difficult to filter questions without an answer.
Is it due to something? Isn't writing an answer more rewarding than a simple comment?

Answer 1

Respondents doubt their statements or do not consider them an answer at all.
You can dig deeper and think that perhaps the answerer will receive some kind of negative if his answer is not marked with a solution. And writing in the comments section is safe and not so offensive. But this is a separate complex topic.

Answer 2

I'll add another possible reason. At the time of writing the comment, the person does not know if this is a solution or not. And if it turns out that the comment solves the problem - the author of the question is satisfied, the problem is solved. And the fact that it is necessary to mark the question as resolved - he (and the one who answered him) forgets about this (does not think at all). I often meet such questions, it is not clear in advance whether your question will solve a person's problem or not. For example, ssh connection does not work for someone. And there can be many different reasons. A couple of possible options came to your mind - you write them in the comments, ask clarifying questions. And then it turns out that one of your assumptions came up.
In my opinion, the developers of the toaster need to somehow stimulate the choice of a solution for the question, if there was a solution in fact. Or delete the question as irrelevant. Ideally, it should be so that any question without a solution is relevant and the user who can answer it would not guess whether it is worth spending time on it or not.
For example, something in this direction: to implement a reminder to the author of the question (for example, in a week) that no solutions have been selected for his question. And he needs to either choose a solution, or delete the question, or mark it as relevant (that is, he checked, no one really gave a solution to the question and the question is still relevant for him). And for non-compliance with these rules - marking the issue as relevant, while there is a solution to it - some penalties (when community members notice this).

Answer 3

Comments to discuss in question, and the answer is for a 100% answer one hundred percent

Answer 4

There are more options for replies on the "complain" button than for comments.
I myself write comments for answers in which I am not sure.