This might seem facetious, but the cookie warning really threw me off. It doesn't really matter, I canbjust click past it, but instantly in my head:
"This isn't HN for anything. Some marketing something or other I guess..."
I think, for a dedicated/techy crowd, little things like a cookie warning mean a lot. To me it screams crap. I can't think of a single website I use enjoy using regularly that included a cookie warning. I think Reddit added a cookie warning when their UI went to shit.