Please check out the Discussion on the topic about the ID tips feature:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/new-search-and-sort-tool-for-identifying-identification-tips/80268
There’s pretty extensive discussion of adding tips from IDs vs. comments there. Since the other part of the OP’s question about what cf means has been answered and the thread above is still open for conversation, I’m going to set this thread to close. Please add any additional comments about this topic to the existing thread above.