@Shirley -if you look at the Site administration section in the Glossary documentation you linked to, you will see how an admin can enable the browse by category option.
Would it help to add the Course overview block to the default dashboard (Site admin > Appearance} and reset the dashboard for all users? That said, I like Shirley's suggestion
Assuming you already have an account, make sure you have "Comments" selected in the Activity section (not "All) If you have already done that and still don't see comments then you can ask for support with the tracker via the Moodle community support form
Your second paragraph, Dominique, is particularly pertinent I feel. The question is does HQ have enough motivation to foster an active and welcoming environment to a forum-based community where people are giving help for free, when they could pay for help instead. And if not HQ, then who in the existing forum-based community?