How much confusion is justifiable in the name of simplifying comment "threads"?

Question

Suppose I leave a comment to a question or answer suggesting a change that I cannot make myself or don't wish to make because of uncertainty as to whether or not I'm missing something. Then the change is either made or not, but another comment mentions or explains the change or absence thereof. Assuming the confusion I would cause other users would only be slight, is it justifiable for me to delete my original comment, which has served its purpose, in order to make the comment "thread" shorter and easier to understand overall, and to make new comments more likely to appear by default?

I'm not sure this is the best example, but a possible example where I'd consider doing this is my first comment to this answer.

Of course, if I delete that comment, then my second comment will become the first, and then this question will stop making sense. In this particular instance, I can ensure there is no confusion by also editing this question. But since I can never be sure of who is relying on my comments, I'm inclined to think I should probably avoid deleting them unless they are truly unproductive. But maybe the rest of you have other ideas...

Answer 1

The primary use for comments are to ask for or provide clarification on questions or answers. Once such clarification has been provided, these comments no longer serve a useful purpose and should be removed. Then again, it usually doesn't hurt too much to just leave them there unless there is a lot of clutter building up.

I would say it is best practice to remove comments whenever you possibly can without removing important information others need to know. Such information would be better relocated in an edit to the question/answer anyways, so readers don't have to hunt for it in the comments.