I made a feature request in this thread for including newlines in comments, and it was promptly declined. The reason was that it was discussed in May 2009 in some other website. It was the equivalent of shutting the door on the face of a petitioner.
I find it highly anguishing that on the one hand certain users here are harassed for not keeping in line with some inconvenient system rules, and on the other hand requests for changing those system rules are ignored without any consideration or response.
If the aim is to help the users, then either users should not be harassed for minor violations of unreasonable rules, or help should be given when users ask for a change in the said rules to make way for an easier life for everyone.