Why is it HN's problem that search engines suck?
So if HN were to think: "gee, we don't want to delete this content, but we also see how it breaks the rules", they could opt to put some noindex flags for the robots to consume which is a very cheap way to try to do something that reflects their own rules.
It is of course possible that this is no reputation effect at all, and there is also no interest on a human level in all of this. In such a case, nothing happens.
If anything, this specific behaviour and these actors have been outlined by articles dedicated to just that, right here on this sited. Granted, other sites are often lumped in here as well, such as reddit and even stackoverflow. This is not new behaviour, it happens in all communities. The big differences between them all is to what degree they get abused and in what manner.
As for examples: I doubt people who are targeted will want to share their experience with anyone directly. Someone asking for it to stop should be enough.
What you could do is plug "Asahi Linux targeted" in to any search engine and read as much as you like. It's not like this is very new either, this mess has been going on for years now.
As usual, it's also your average internet mud-flinging contest, but at the core the issue of harassment stands, and shining a light on it regardless of the actors is always a good idea.
They are explicitly* asking us to take action--the onus is on them to explain to us why we should take action. They have not, so no action will happen. It's as simple as that. We aren't the ones asking for something to be done here.
Kiwi Farms is a terrible website that does terrible things. What does that have to do with us? Barring any explanation from them, my conclusion is that it doesn't have anything to do with us.
* "Please demand change within your community."