I do not understand your distinction between opinions and debate.
I just posted in the Average US Life Expectancy is Shrinking. thread in GD. Mine was the 32nd response to the OP. And it was the first to contain cites. What could the other posts be than opinions? Of course, mine was an opinion as well, but an opinion backed with facts. Isn’t that what a debate properly is, not mere word management, however good?
Opinions are rampant on this board. Most of the forums contain nothing but opinions, even FQ a disappointing amount of time. If the board wants GD to stand out and be different, then mod it so that it doesn’t look like an exact duplicate of IMHO. Define “debate” first off. Or else kill off GD and put in a “Discussions” forum so we know what to expect inside of it.