LJ filters and screening interactions?

LJ technical question: I just for the first time made a (locked) post with comments screened. And was annoyed to discover that replying to a comment unscreens it. I was thinking I'd just send replies using LJ's send-a-message interface, but that's clunky and loses context. So now I'm thinking

• go to the edit entry interface
• resave the entry as private (i.e. viewable only to me)
• reply to all the comments
• re-screen all the comments, and my replies
• go to the edit interface again, and
• save it as friends-locked to that same filter again

What a fucking kludge! Also, given how stupid LJ's interface appears to be with regard to this, I find myself wondering —

• if I re-save a post as private, will LJ retroactively delete the existing comments?
• Is LJ really this brain-damaged around screened comments, or am I missing something?

too many friends groups

Damn I wish LJ had ACLs. And a CLI for controlling them.