While I understand where you guys are coming from regarding it seem pointless disable replies to announcements (majority of me agrees), this part (below) from the permissions announcement is probably the most relevant.
It’s worth noting that any thread that links back to the announcement will show up in the announcement thread, and anyone is welcome to create a thread regarding the change for people to use (which I guess sometimes happens regardless). eg.
Because the announcement is generally going to be posted across other socials also (eg. reddit) the world of feedback and reactions is already split in general. Personally I’d prefer everything point back to one place and discuss there but I doubt that’s going to happen.
The way I see the announcements section now is a “clean” spot for the announcements to live, and the respective threads can be created on demand as necessary, including a general one if necessary. If the general thread got popular, on reddit we’d probably call that person the lucky ‘upvote’ farmer or something, right?