HN could do what Metafilter does and automatically rewrite all affiliate links to their own. If they don't want/need the money, they could donate it to charity.
i don't understand the aversion to affiliate links. if someone buys a book from amazon based on my recommendation (and link), amazon thanks me by giving me a portion of their profit on the sale. that shopper doesn't pay extra money, the author doesn't receive less money, and i am rewarded for taking the time to respond to that person's question.
In fact, it was frowned upon posting affiliate links with users' codes.
[1] http://metatalk.metafilter.com/11174/Im-proposing-a-small-ch...
Because that is the policy that the moderators and community arrived at. Some people think that allowing affiliate links incentivizes behavior detrimental to the site. You are free to disagree, but calling it "stealing" is begging the question.
Stripping affiliate links is kind of like nofollow for search engines.
pg could make a poll with links to the various pitches and the one with the highest vote totals gets funded. Of course, you'd have to worry about poll-stuffing and the like; but I think it would be an interesting experiment.