"Nobody wants to read your shit" (unless you give them an good reason to do so).
That's not assuming people are sheep. That's assuming that people are self-interested. And much of the time they are.
So even if you ignore everything else the author wrote (which you seemed to, since you're arguing that HN articles are popular because they're interesting, and the author's answer number two included making the writing interesting...), there is a valuable lesson present.
If you want people to read your writing, write something that will appeal to somebody (say... your audience). It isn't even difficult to give somebody a good reason to read what you wrote: if they find it interesting, that's a reason; if they find it entertaining, that's a reason; if they get to escape their lousy life for 25 minutes, that's a reason. This is hardly revolutionary advice, but it is a good reminder.