This website you’re reading now has “guidelines”, yet no-one is accusing hn of creating a harsher world (at least not in the word they use instead of rules).
Whether that’s a good or bad thing is a separate question. IMO policing tone is a mostly uninteresting exercise.
2. A take down of "guideline" breaking comments doesn't impact my income as an app developer.
That's because you pay with your eyeballs (for premium dev/business/startup traffic to YC's posts).