I think the approval situation must be more complex than that. It's hard to imagine he approved all those comments asking if he was ok without responding. That doesn't seem like him. I wonder if he has some people whitelisted, regular commenters.
I know in the past he has sometimes had all comments automatically approved, and other times shut that off. Maybe he shut it off again right before whatever happened?
3/4 timing in a DIY van conversion. Backroads, mountains, boondocking, sometimes big cities for a change of pace.