MicrosoftI have little knowledge of working with programs in network environments, so the first port of call is to contact your IT department (if you haven't already!) and indicate to them the issues involved. If there is sufficient company-wide opprobrium then they may consider rollback.
However, after contacting your IT department, they may indicate that either/both of the other methods of disposing of Modern Comments elaborated earlier in this thread can still be run locally.
I would think the macro method utilising Word's own inherent doc comparison functionality will work regardless.
The registry method may not be allowable, presumably depending on individual company policy. But since all your personal Word settings will be in your local registry and the hack changes are to keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft then this method might be feasible/allowable. Contact your IT department for guidance.
If you're not in/on a network, then all three methods of removing Modern Comments – i.e. rollback, double click a desktop registry hack file, or compare docs macro – will work on your m/c. This means you do not have to continue suffering with Modern Comments (... not yet anyway), unless that is you're a masochist and/or you need to build up your frustration with MS to a certain level before you can vent your spleen.
And just keeping a doc open in the b/ground (even an empty one) during a work session/multiple sleep cycles means you only have to run the hack (and I suspect macro) when you have to restart your m/c or Word.
Re JRo28's comment at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-modern-comments-in-microsoft-word/bc-p/2400147/highlight/true#M1907
All I can say is THIS!
I feel it should default to non-collaboration mode, but I could live with having to opt out of a comments collaboration mode.
