Everyone wants to be the smartest person in the room.
It's a shame, because it never used to be that way. And if ever it was, it was in a positive "look, I made this!" way.
To me, the fact that a story like this would even get to #1 on HN says more about how HN has morphed. Would we have seen this 4 or 5 years ago? Unlikely IMHO.