Maybe I have missed the point, but your post sounds like you think Merkur disagrees. I think that you are actually agreeing with the GP (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9523335), which says that:

> I think this was a bad decision. I think you would agree as soon [as] a tool ... uses

    > //todo: bar

(i.e., that the `//todo:` syntax would unambiguously demonstrate the bad-ness of the decision).