Thread:Feedback/Hierarchical vs. Linear

I think it's important at this point to make quite a critical decision which I've been thinking about for a while: I'm considering making threads linear by default. This has a number of advantages over hierarchical structure:
 * It's easy to follow a discussion from start to finish.
 * Less screen real-estate is wasted by the indented style of discussion.
 * It discourages side-discussions with no relevance to the main discussion.

Here's what changes I would make:
 * Move the Reply link into the menu, remove its icon and change its label (FT2 suggests "insert reply").
 * Below the last post at each level of each thread, add a link "Add new reply", with the icon of a blue down-arrow (as with Wave).
 * Add an "indent" link to each post, which would send the user to the "Merge" screen, set up to move the post to a child beneath the post before it.

What do others think of this suggestion?