"A lot of the issues here seem to be around the fight to get on the "trending" page."

I would tend to agree.

"I wonder if they changed the trending algorithm to weigh the votes on the comments of a post as well as the post itself if that would encourage more discussion and push the good discussions to the top."

I've suggested something very similar to this, but crafting the formula itself is no small tas.

"Do you know how the trending page algorithm works?"

I think it's a straight up, per-tag ranking of pending rewards. More = better.