I have, from the very beginning, found it important to comment on posts that I relate with. The only time I had issues with commenting was when I had bandwidth issues. Since then I comment as much as I can everyday, with my bandwidth on my mind, mind you.
A lot can be achieved on this site with just comments. I have made relationships through my comments, I have drawn some big names to my blog posts because of my comments.
One of the first things I did on discord was fill the column, ginabot provided in its settings page with names of people who I wanted to be notified about when ever they post.
The importance of comments can never be overemphasized. At the same time, writing comments that show interest in the article under discussion pays more than commenting because you are expecting an upvote. The difference is evident.