I like it, it's effective in doing what you state. Not sure if you necessarily need to highlight it by graying out, perhaps your intention was to highlight solely for the test.
FEEDBACK NEEDED!
In a test update I'm shading nested replies and showing a "[+] show replies" button for you to show the deeper replies to prevent the confusion created by large threads. I'd like feedback before releasing it. Just reply here. Thanks in advance!
Test it at https://nostrgram.co/staging/
Discussion
Thank you for the feedback!