As the original submitter: it seems like this post, although a duplicate, was generating further engaging and informative discussion beyond that discussed in the previous post, arguably more than the previous post (on the basis of number of comments within the first hour being equivalent to number of comments over the course of the 24 hour lifetime of the previous post). Not sure if this was you, but marking as duplicate has effectively killed that discussion by making the post disappear.

As the HN policy around reposts is somewhat subjective "If a story has had significant attention in the last year or so, we kill reposts as duplicates. If not, a small number of reposts is ok," I'd contend that marking as dupe in this case wasn't the right move. While the post from yesterday did get significant attention, that post moved past the front page, and today's repost resulted in meaningful and engaging further discussion. Unfortunately now that discussion is most probably dead, as is the discussion on yesterday's post, where new comment activity has stalled.