in a case like this, i actually like the dialogue/conversation nature of the comments. i think the opinion of "not needing them" seems miss what they're accomplishing.
Yes, an experienced dev can infer intent from context (name, project, 'culture'), and even a smart beginner can read ahead to infer intent. But the comment resolves ambiguity in the advanced dev's mind, and saves the beginner's mind from the difficulty of read-ahead inferences (of which he may have several going at once).
I ripped these code comments from my presenter notes where I was explaining everything in case people couldn't read it.
I'll have to go back in and clean it up