> What makes this hack different from the Sony leak by lulzsec and the other high profile hacks by the various lulz copycats 5 - 10 years ago?
That the first thing that came to mind is a hacking group which disbanded a decade ago is a hint what you're describing is atypical considering these kinds of hacks are constant. Check the incident list on haveibeenpwned for example most of these are self admitted black hatters or criminal gangs, not hacktivist groups.
That's not to say there isn't also a lot of meme refencing and lulz involved as well just the hactivism "we're the good guys" isn't typical even when filtering to just the 4chan/Anonymous style hacks.
> The dump is completely reminiscent of 4chan/Anonymous hacktivists as well.
4chan/Anonymous weren't normally "hacktivists". E.g. lulzec... did it for the lulz. They didn't do it claiming to be white nights they actually called out white hat hackers as corrupt. They knew what they were doing was wrong they just found it funny - there is no need comment how the hackers are bad when they go around saying they are in the leak.
The hackers here explicitly think what they were doing is good hence the extra reaction saying wait, this is certainly not white hat hacking.
> I don’t know anything of Epik before this hack, but to me it’s clear that it was only a matter of time for Epik, and people should be mad at Epik. Unsalted md5 in 2021 is just inexcusable at this point and I’m doubtful this kind of hack took any skill at all given the complete lack of security they employed.
Largely agreed however it's possible to be angry at 2 parties at the same time and it's typical that every site at the butt end of a hack is found to have bad security (hence the hack) so it's not going to get the same reaction boost for commenting as hackers leaking some of HN's non-fascist members private info out of "altruism".