How come you think this is happening? Do more people just simply randomly discover it by accident, are they being recommended HN, or do more people find it through ads on the web?
Anyways my point was that, like all the cool places on the internet started with some kind of : low graphics, quality content, friendly community. After a while, maybe 5-10 years, more or less, adoption grows to a point where a corporation wants to buy the place. If they are allowed to do so then they modify the rules, curate the content, add the advertisement or subscription fees and start making money with it.
After that your parents join and the place becomes just an ordinary social network, boring and gentrified as the cool people who were there in the first place move out to another small, new, cool community, and the cycle repeats itself.
So all I'm trying to say is that HN is cool and I hope it doesn't fall into the same trap down the road.