An ex-HNer commented a while back, while leaving the community, that the primary deterrent was the culture change to where discussion was not valued. He stated that the primary draw to "Old HN" were not the articles themselves, but rather the long-tailed intellectual discourses that happened in the comments.

I often see comment threads die out on HN far too quickly, and the parties lose interest often. Any change that would promote more critical insight and stimulating conversations gets a profound thumbs up from me.