@catvalente The lack of quote-tweeting was a conscious choice. QTing on Twitter lends itself to the quoter interacting with THEIR audience, rather than the person who originally posted it. It's often used as a way to "reply" to a post in a negative manner without making that as obvious to the OP, or to later "I didn't mean anything, I was just saying..." type justifications.
By replying publicly, you're still drawing the post to your readers' attention while interacting with the OP.