In general this is my prob with society today. Why do we have to be nice to people? Why do we have to show empathy? Why can we not say hateful things? No violence/assault no harm.
Is it /really/ true that the best contributors are so sensitive? In my experience, these days it's actually the worst contributors or those who contribute not at all who are the most sensitive and liable to throw in the towel.
I'm sympathetic to your view but there is another risk that by overmoderating or catering to the most sensitive of contributors, HN will be left with non-interesting content, or controversial opinions will be silenced.
What possible reason? Is it excerting more effort? Does it in any concievable way affect the world in a negative way?
I'm sure your argument would be other people taking advantage, but being nice isn't the same as being naive. Give people the benefit of the doubt and the world is a better place.
Thankfully most nations laws and most private companies ToS extend beyond just physical harassment. He breached Twitter's ToS multiple times. Now he's banned.