I was thinking about nested quotes - wouldn't it be better if they were collapsible? The first level would be expanded by default and all higher levels collapsed. If a person needed extra context, they would hit a button or link to expand those higher levels. This could be achieved with simple CSS.
I do not think that such a change is likely to occur for the current forum. I don't recall how it works in the beta of the new software, but you should check it out and recommend it there. I am not exactly sure how this is relevant to the OP though. 