Awesome Reviewers

When data fields can be missing, placeholder, or truly empty, never collapse them into the same falsy value. Explicitly represent and branch on “unknown vs empty” (or verified vs unverified), and avoid if x: checks that treat 0/""/None equivalently.

Apply these rules:

Example (verified vs placeholder count):

def payoff_tier(post):
    eng = post.get("engagement") or {}
    if eng.get("counts_verified"):
        # real count: treat 0 as empty, >0 as non-empty
        return 2 if (eng.get("num_comments") or 0) > 0 else 0
    # unknown count (placeholder): don’t penalize as empty
    return 1

# Optional numeric override: honor explicit 0
cap = config.get("_max_source_fetches")
if cap is not None:
    cap = int(cap)