Sadly I dont know when it was added or if it can be turned off, Im not very familiar with it.
Lemmy-ui uses isomorphic rendering so comments do come loaded (just not all of them) on the first page you visit, no javascript needed. Did you mean it should serve all comments?
Its a blessing in disguise that there have been server issues. It will hopefully spread users out better over other instances.
Of those I subscribe to, a few I don’t miss reading:
It is out, the repository is linked in the article. Has installation instructions and a demo app too.