Welcome to StructuredDiscussions. :-) Do you think that using a system similar to this one would actually result in less "bite-y" communications with new editors? It might reduce the amount of nitpicking we (speaking in my volunteer capacity) do about "you have to sign!" and "add colons!", but is that enough to change the overall feel?
Topic on Talk:Talk pages consultation 2019/Individual feedback
I really don't know. I'm not intimately familiar with Structured Discussions - the linked-to page was apparently out of date. I would just like to see something that's easier to use for all of us. I'm open to suggestions! :O) ~~~~
It was set to the default talk page format on this wiki a couple years ago, by popular demand. It has some advantages. It has some solvable disadvantages. And it has some aspects that probably aren't solvable (within any reasonable level of effort). For example, if it's really important to you to make our conversation be the fourth thread on the page instead of whatever it is, then that just won't work. (If memory serves, the ability to split threads was planned, but I'm not sure whether merging threads was.)
There are some other things that have been a little bit surprising. For example, you can edit comments (your own or others', if you have whatever priv level is set for your wiki), but there's no edit summary box. And so far, I haven't heard a single actual complaint about that. Edit summaries just don't seem to be important for most conversations. (No need to sign!)
So this is Flow? ... umm, I mean StructuredDiscussions!
Why don't people like it?
Seems that this could work in Wikipedia for low-volume talk about non-contentious articles. Outside article space, pages and talk-pages get used for all kinds of weird and wacky creative workflows that might not adapt well (at least on EN-WP).
Sorry, I didn't answer your question. It might help a little, but there are many other things that make EN-WP bitey.
Most workflows (e.g., adding messages with Twinkle) work in this system. The original plan was to build something powerful enough to handle the English Wikipedia's AFD pages and ARBCOM cases. (In 2019, there's no reason why anybody should have manually count up votes on a website.)
What doesn't work in the current version is that when I (volunteer-me) wake up in the morning, I want to see everything that was posted to w:en:WT:MED last night. That feature doesn't exist right now. (The then-product manager recently apologized for not building it.)