Still, a few things I like. I used old.reddit.com, but even that seems to be a bit better than the default UI on hacker news. I don't mind the UI, but I found old.reddit.com easier and faster to use (the new reddit UI is just garbage though). It would be nice if hackernews could add more features that are SIMPLE and also simple improves to the layout - again, just very small and careful changes; people dislike any change to their workflows, so hackernews should make these conservatively and only little; and perhaps with a limit per year or every 5 years or so.
Content-wise I have no huge issue, although I'd like more grouping, as some news are interesting, others not so much (to me). Reading just the title is often not enough; some good articles have horrible titles and vice versa.