I think it's very tricky to get the balance right.
I know I don't like seeing three, four or five Sunday Times, say, threads, and discovering that the requested answers were given in the first or second one. I don't think we have to 'scroll through dozens of threads' - I just look at the first two pages.
I haven't seen anything that makes me think friendly chat is being discouraged. The regular puzzles, threads, still have bits of banter and nonsense on them.