WP_Comment protected $children

[Tkama]

Why we need $children prop of WP_Comment class to be protected?

It's very inconvenient in some cases, for example, I use get_comments() with hierarchical => threaded param and get comment objects which contains nested comments:

// I delete some fields of WP_Comment Object for convenience.

Array
        [22986] => WP_Comment Object
                [comment_ID]           => 22986
                [comment_post_ID]      => 8342
                [comment_author]       => camp
                [comment_date]         => 2018-04-11 19:07:08
                [comment_content]      => Добавлено.
                [comment_type]         =>
                [comment_parent]       => 22430
                [populated_children:protected] => 1
                [children:protected] => Array 
                        [22998] => WP_Comment Object 
                                [comment_ID]           => 22998
                                [comment_post_ID]      => 8342
                                [comment_author]       => Максим
                                [comment_date]         => 2018-04-12 12:15:25
                                [comment_content]      => Работает отлично. Спасибо!
                                [comment_type]         =>
                                [comment_parent]       => 22986
                                [populated_children:protected] => 1
                                [children:protected] => Array
                                        [23035] => WP_Comment Object
                                                [comment_ID]                   => 23035
                                                [comment_post_ID]              => 8342
                                                [comment_author]               => camp
                                                [comment_date]                 => 2018-04-16 15:36:00
                                                [comment_content]              => Спасибо за обратную связь!
                                                [comment_type]                 =>
                                                [comment_parent]               => 22998
                                                [children:protected]           =>
                                                [populated_children:protected] => 1

Now I want to use this nested data, but I can't access it.

Maybe make $children prop public?

[SergeyBiryukov]

Thanks for the ticket!

Replying to Tkama:

Now I want to use this nested data, but I can't access it.

You should be able to access it with the ​WP_Comment::get_children() method:
​https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/301190/how-to-check-if-a-comment-has-replies/356389#356389

[Tkama]

Thanks! Wondering why I didn't think about corresponding method.