This post has more engagement than any other post on the front page. It seems hackernews has been overrun by a certain crowd whom this death seems newsworthy
If the situation were as you say, we could deal with it by banning the "overrunners" who are not here to use HN as intended. But it's not that—it's that the community is divided in much the ways that society at large is divided, and that divisive topics generate strong reactions.