I always figured it’s because HN is run by Y Combinator, a technology startup accelerator, so inevitably many of the folks here will be more pro entrepreneurship than non-profit.
I've always viewed it as more of a hacker's hangout with the unfortunate side-effect of being YC-sponsored being that you sometimes have to put up with some dumb corporate news here and there, but it seems to be going in a slightly different direction for a while now (or more likely I was just always wrong on this one :P).
There is an enormous YC bias here. ShowHN posts from new YC startups are upvoted instantly whilst most from outside are ignored - the ones you see are the exception. The HN rules state you are not meant to play the game of asking people to boost your post but it seems like time and time again they co-ordinate, or allow it, for the insiders.
I think Show HN posts from YC startups are actually boosted by the system. Same with the hiring posts for YC startups. So it's not people, but explicitly coded in.
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