Don't you think that the heat-based walls are good too? I'm big fan of HN because of it. The /new tab is available and I sometimes checking it but I love the home page of HN and I love that it's (mostly) what everyone sees at the same time.
They are also good, but outside a more or less homogeneous bubble with no incentive for monetization it quickly becomes a cesspool dictated by "the algorithm".
HN doesnt have sponsored content that can be heated up via monetization.