I might be wrong :). You can go ahead and disagree with the proposed deletion; it's Wikipedia. I can assure you I am a very light editor. If there is a cabal, I am not a member.
Imagine if everyone was allowed to write a factual, well-formed, properly cited article ?
Your sarcasm is really quite hurtful.
The idea of Wikipedia is to allow anyone to write articles. But in practice a newcomer has to have a lot of grit to keep content on the site because of the social structures that effectively make certain topics off-limits to newcomers. I like Wikipedia a lot but I have better things to do with my life than go to ArbCom when someone is effectively claiming ownership of a page.
Changing subjects:
How does one change the username their HN posts are made by, after the fact ? That's a neat trick ...
And maybe it's just me, but I don't get the impression that most very light editors of Wikipedia have even made a single proposal for deletion.
It's also worth pointing out that the conflict and tedium you anticipated just didn't materialize. An anonymous editor reverted my proposal with a one-line rebuttal and that looks like the end of the story.
I know the phenomenon you are describing, and it is real. I just don't think it's a fair description of what happened here. I made a well-intentioned editorial decision, and when I saw grumbling here, I went out of my way to acknowledge my fallibility and to point out my action could be reversed.
I wasn't expecting to be called out as an example of Everything Wrong With Wikipedia These Days, though that's exactly what the comments and downvotes in this thread feel like. I'm pretty bummed about it.
I felt tricked, since posting a link directly to the video would have sufficed. I suppose a submission that links to Wikipedia attracts more clicks and upvotes. However, the article has very little substance and looks to be essentially a wrapper around a YouTube video link.
I probably should have linked to the Reddit post but that had even less content and I didn't have it to hand.