Comment by quesera

They are not penalized, the grey text applies to all text posts.

It's confusing, but greying out is used on HN for a single purpose: to discourage reading (and therefore writing).

Low-quality comments are greyed by downvotes from other users and moderators.

Text posts (including Ask and Show HN) are greyed automatically.

Ask/Show posters are encouraged to post a comment on their own story, and to let that comment rise or fall according to its up/down votes.

Meta-meta: Your comment might be downvoted for being meta to the post. It looks like it has already been "detached" from the comment tree so that it appears at the bottom instead of responding to up/downvotes. This is actually protective of your karma and this conversation. Your question is valid, but it's not germane to the post. If your comment was allowed to float to its normal location, it would be downvoted by others who considered it off-topic.