MicrosoftI admit I don't understand how in a particular company/office with presumably a company-/office-wide update policy that one person gets the dreaded "Retrogressive Comments" and others don't. Galling. I could be wrong, but it suggests local factors are at play, like signing up to the MS insider stuff.
There are one or two obvious workarounds; for example, if you have to put up with Modern Comments then just type #1, #2, ... in them and put your actual numbered comments in a separate file or at the end of the present doc. This was what I started doing before I found the hack method.
To me, your IT department is there to help you. Escalate it with your line manager or whatever. Make a noisy fuss. That would be my first thought. But then perhaps you have already!
[tbc...]
