diff --git a/internal/runner/foreground_guard_last_action_test.go b/internal/runner/foreground_guard_last_action_test.go
index 6a5a265..426f672 100644
--- a/internal/runner/foreground_guard_last_action_test.go
+++ b/internal/runner/foreground_guard_last_action_test.go
@@ -74,8 +74,10 @@ func (d *leavesForegroundAfterSubmitDriver) Snapshot(context.Context) (string, d
 	return fmt.Sprintf(homeWithTxnCount, d.committed.Load()), driver.Image{}, nil
 }
 
-// No device answers Snapshot and Hierarchy off different trees, and the runner
-// reads both per step, so this one answers them off the same commit count.
+// The runner reads both per step and compares them, so a device that answered
+// them off different trees would make every step of this test transitional and
+// judged by nothing. The sidecar serves both off one read path (snapshotTree)
+// for the same reason; this one answers them off the same commit count.
 func (d *leavesForegroundAfterSubmitDriver) Hierarchy(context.Context) (string, error) {
 	return fmt.Sprintf(homeWithTxnCount, d.committed.Load()), nil
 }
diff --git a/internal/runner/runner.go b/internal/runner/runner.go
index 53fa151..dfde026 100644
--- a/internal/runner/runner.go
+++ b/internal/runner/runner.go
@@ -1079,6 +1079,13 @@ retryLoop:
 // filling in. Two reads a read apart are the cheapest thing that can see it
 // happening: the round trip IS the interval, so there is no sleep here.
 //
+// The comparison only means anything because the Hierarchy RPC serves the tree
+// the snapshot's own read produces (see snapshotTree in the sidecar). Off the
+// bare device read it does not: with an IME standing open, the snapshot answers
+// with 134 nodes and the bare read with 489, and the pair then differs over
+// whether the sidecar closed a keyboard between them rather than over anything
+// the app did.
+//
 // Waiting for the change to stop was measured on an API 34 device and refused:
 // a 750ms-quiet poll capped at 2s cost a median 1434ms against 76ms for one
 // read, hit its cap on every frame it fired for, and still handed back a frame