Replying to jmdh:
Firstly - is it customary on this trac instance to edit the description with commentary? Since there is no built-in attribution it might confuse other people reviewing the bug.
The close keyword should have been added instead.
Leaving this as a feature request, since nothing is technically dysfunctional.
I'm itching to close the ticket. It seems to me that highlighting the problem to the end user (a notice in the comment form, explaining that entering an email will reveal the avatar attached to it), and implementing the workaround (aka a "Show my Avatar" checkbox in the comment form), can (should) both be done in a plugin or in the theme. There's a get_avatar hook in get_avatar(), and comments can have a meta field.