Nematic liquid crystals are soft matter systems in which elongated molecules align and form long-range oriented fields, in 2 or 3 dimensions. They have a long history, many practical applications, and are increasingly recognized for the many roles they play in biology. In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. E 102, 012607 (2020)], my former visiting student Yiheng Zhang (张一恒), his supervisor Zhanchun Tu (涂展春), (both at Beijing Normal University, and myself have investigated a particular question...