Yeah, they get a lot of flak for that from HN. Doesn't bother me personally, but I can see why it would be a dealbreaker for some people. On the other hand, I sympathize with their decision to just not have to worry about storing passwords, account recovery, and all the associated headaches, because I hate those headaches too.

My guess is they will eventually add a sign-up-with-email option, but it's pretty far from the top of their priority list.