Yes, when there's a MOT (major ongoing topic) [1], especially a MegaMOT like this one, we try to have the frontpage threads be about significant new information (SNI) [2], rather than opinion pieces. The latter tend to count as follow-ups [3], and those tend to be bad for HN because they're repetitive [4].

[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

[3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

[4] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...