There's no proof that it had anything to do with the poll; that's pure conjecture on their part. The only reason the forum posters feel that way is because it was all they cared about; they wanted EVO to win this meaningless poll. If we take Engadget at their word, they probably didn't even look at the poll when deciding to remove the article; they were more concerned about the quality of the article itself.
My point is, I agree with you; I hate manipulative media as well. That's why I think that on HN, we should not be using sensationalist titles with unconfirmed inferences like the one in the title of this post, and we should be discussing this from a more neutral point of view. Otherwise we're just as guilty as anyone else.