I'm going to somewhat agree with drk here. In the past, I have had troublemaker members who found out they could change the subject of their reply to avoid things like the bad word filter, or to put in quips to poke fun at other members, etc...
Essentially, the ONLY time my members change the subject in their replies is for breaking the rules or causing trouble. I have yet to see this used in a good way. I would think this should be an option to turn on or off, or maybe not included at all.
If someone has seen a lot of legitimate use for this, please speak up. But I can say from what I've seen on my site, nobody bothers to alter the subject in their replies unless it is for bad, not good simply because they know it doesn't adhere to the same rules as posts.