Strange comment. Who doesn't admit it? Everything can be a distraction.
People think that hackernews is productive won’t admit it.
It is but, for me anyway, it's a world away from Facebook, Insta and similar sites in terms of quality and usefulness. I do find myself opening my phone and having a quick look down the HN homepage listing but I'm fairly safe in the knowledge that anything I do read will of decent quality and have some benefit.
The other big difference is that HN doesn't got out of its way to make you consume more or want to constantly come back, that's not their business model.