Would pushing highly turbulent comments further down in the thread accomplish some of what you're going for? In a large thread the arguments would fall to the bottom. I would probably rather read an 8 point comment with 10 ups and 2 downs than one with 110 ups and 102 downs.
I would prefer the 110/102 comment. If it has that many upvotes, it's probably not rude or uncivil -- just controversial. Disagreement-downvoters have been nudging it down, but someone else always comes along an nudges it up. That makes it more interesting than a crowd-pandering 10/2.
(I think the up/down totals might be shown to good effect, not necessarily cluttering the main thread, but on the item detail/reply page.)
