Edit: Of course, it is more complicated than that. But I think that is the heart of the matter and often overlooked by members analyzing the dynamics here.
IMHO, anyone who takes HN like that is bound to be disappointed. What rises to the top is pretty much a crapshoot.
A few weeks back I made a small side project that got to #1 on the HN frontpage:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10117297
Thing is, I had posted the same site as a "Show HN" the previous week, and that time it didn't get a single upvote! It's just a matter of luck. (The moderators will even sometimes send you an email asking for a repost if they think your submission should have got more attention.)
Also worth mentioning is that the only reason I was inspired to make the WordSafety site was a discussion on HN (it's mentioned in the comments on the post I linked above). That to me is the real value of Hacker News: finding the motivation to do something. Showing off the finished product feels kind of secondary even.
HN is the funnel for YC. You cannot (or could not -- perhaps they have changed it, I have not looked at their application recently) apply to YC without having an HN handle. The last time I looked, every member of your team needed an HN handle to apply, even if they created it solely to apply and never posted anything.
Paul Graham has commented in the past about the fact that he read HN enough that he sometimes recognized the handles and already had an opinion about the applicants based on their handle before they applied.
Not everyone on HN is here to apply to YC. But some are. Successful YC companies can go on to be worth millions. YC itself is currently worth billions as I understand it. They have a paid moderator. This is, in fact, part of their business model.
I don't really understand why you would question my assertion given the market value of some of the YC alumni, who are, as I understand it, the only companies allowed to advertise jobs here and get to use HN in other ways to develop and promote their business. Granted, there are a great many more participants that will never apply to YC than there are YC alumni. But, yes, for some people, HN is a first step towards becoming very wealthy.
That doesn't mean every last person here feels a need to be on their best behavior. But group culture does not require every last member here to view it as a possible path to millionaire status for that expectation to influence the culture as a whole. The ones who relate to it that way are some of the most influential people here.
Feel free to search the site for confirmation or email him and ask him. I am pretty darn sure he isn't working for a multibillion dollar company for free. But perhaps I misunderstood something somewhere along the way.
"Finally, I'm delighted to announce that Daniel Gackle (pronounced Gackley), who has already been doing most of the moderation for the last 18 months, is going to join YC full-time to be in charge of the HN community."