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When is it OK to change the subject in your reply to a post?
So, changing the subject is inherently hostile. You're telling someone that the topic they want to discuss doesn't matter, and you're going to hijack their thread -- and their reach -- to talk about something you care about instead.
I think it makes sense when replying to powerful people who are not paying attention to an urgent crisis -- telling a politician that Black Lives Matter, or telling an oil executive that climate change is real. This is good and necessary work.
You can also do it to less powerful people, but realize that it's hostile and you're likely to get negative reactions. When the maintainer of your favourite Open Source software package posts their vacation photos, it's a bad time to try to get them to look at your bug report.
If you have something you want to talk to a friend about ("this reminds me that I wanted to talk to you about..."), they might understand, but it sure is a lot nicer to just send a DM, or start a new public or followers-only thread.
If you're talking to a stranger, and it's not your goal to be hostile, don't do it.
I'd say: rarely.
@evan I was also thinking of the times when somebody asks for a thing and people veer the question into something completely different, and no, do not do that. Even if I'm 120% sure the asker did not consider X when asking for Y, and X is actually the best solution for Y in that case, I'm still going to be very careful to suggest it.
@evan This old piece assumes the opposite, but. https://weblogs.asp.net/alex_papadimoulis/408925