There's a reason complaining that HN is "turning into Reddit" is a "semi-noob illusion as old as the hills."

People show up here expecting a community far more erudite , intellectually and technically deep and separated from popular culture than they find, and when disillusion sets in they interpret this as a degradation of the culture.

Also in a culture that eschews humor and common sentiment the way HN often does (in order to not "be like Reddit") hostility, misanthropy and cynicism become intellectual virtue signals.