@Gargron Hometown has reverted that behaviour, and clicking on the timestamp will open the link to the origin instance in a new browser tab (https://github.com/hometown-fork/hometown/releases/tag/v4.0.2+hometown-1.1.0#tweaks). So you keep your logged-in browser tab, and have the full thread on the origin instance in another one.
On a small instance, having a limited view of the replies is the more significant barrier.

@nelson @waldoj