My question: Why not include the news comments section when it comes to comps? I've seen peeps who comment there regularly but aren't necessarily participating within the forum (and I mean genuine topic related comments... Not that there's an actual barometer for that).

Let me say this as well; I'm not adverse to the current comp ecosystem because it has activity comps and comps based on the old school MyG comp format. This means there's something for everyone in a way, but I do feel like a significant part of the MyG community is left out of the comps, namely the news articles' comments section. If you look at the community tab of the disqus applet, you'll see a list of active users, and since I'm relatively active on the comments section, I've found a lot of insightful comments in over there.

I repeat: I don't really think there's a barometer for what is regarded as useful activity, but I think it wouldn't hurt to include the news section (if a facility to make it happen exists)