Speakeasy Split

Because there were two distinct forms of posts being made in the speakeasy and people who cared about one don't necessary care about the other.
It could just as validly be asked what is it hurting by separating them? What it's gaining is that people who don't care about whatever article you found interesting enough to post but not actually talk about can exclude those posts if they prefer to while still being able to see actual discussions around topics that are brought up.

But an "actual" discussion could just as easily arise from a thread whose opening post does not explicitly output a perspective. Why would I, as end user, feel the need to distinguish those that do and don't?

One could just as easily post a one-sentence crap thread asking "what do you guys think about [topic]" and omit the link, and it would still be a crap thread if no one responds meaningfully. It takes one mouse hover to tell the difference between these kinds of threads.

However, now that it's done, I will concede that it doesn't hurt, except that I think it's not a very useful division and too many of these would bloat the vertical space of the forum index as well as confuse users as to where something belongs.