I think I saw a setting that would force other people's comments pages to display in the same format as yours? So if you have a non-default I think you should be able to set it so everything appears in your less brain-hurty preferred settings?

Unfortunately, as you've already found, you have to upgrade to an ad-supported Plus account to get a non-headache inducing custom comments page in the first place. I'm reluctant to let livejournal make money off my content given how I feel about them these days.