Monero's main "competitor" seems to be Zcash which is run by a VC-backed company. The company gets 20% of all mined Zcash. The incentive is very strong to FUD Monero.
As of this comment, Monero is #26 on CoinGecko's list of crypto by marketcap with Zcash at #27. I'm guessing that's why there's a few of these posts on HN all of a sudden.
Sure, but I more meant people recycling year old news for clicks, and smart people falling for it. That's a very broad phenomenon and not tied to crypto.