There is no high barrier to entry here. You literally just have to fill out an HTML form, which
everyone knows how to do. It's easier to join HN than it is many other sites, which at least include a second auth factor through email to verify an account. Some sites now require a social media account or validation of a real identity. Lobste.rs won't even talk to you unless someone vouches for you, and they read your existing posts on HN and elsewhere, and decide you're worth letting in. Even 4chan has more friction than HN.
And an API, practically by definition, is not a benefit to membership or a draw for whatever HN considers a typical user, much less the sort of "normie" non-technical user HN wants to keep away. The quality of comments is not maintained to a high standard by the API being more difficult to query than it could be, nor would it be diluted by the API being easier to use.
And as far as Reddit goes, a lot of content gets posted here from Reddit, and a lot of the userbase here are also Reddit users, making the cultural contempt HN has for Reddit more than a bit hypocritical.
A lot of people here, pg included, seem to assume that the "low tech" nature of the featureset here is keeping some flood of unwanted users away but I submit that the title of the site being "Hacker News", it being on a subdomain and the lack of evangelism on mainstream social media do a far better job of gatekeeping than purposely adding "friction" to frustrate people.