The quoted text appears to mention two events - clicking to start a reply, and submitting a reply.
Clearly the first event is inappropriate. And the second is only appropriate if the reply is not a draft, as Jane makes clear.
But what everyone seems to agree on (without actually saying so) is that the third event of *publishing* a nested reply should approve the parent comment.
It's open to interpretation which event the idea "Replying to a comment should approve it" actually refers to; people with different workflows may not have realised there is any difference, people who are focused on WordPress code may have assumed it was the most stupid event rather than stepping back and picking the event that would best achieve the desired result.
My rating is based on the assumption that it is the publishing event that should trigger approval.