it is an example of a discoverable API with discoverable documentation though, which is what you were asking for I think.. maybe not?
The larger goal of hal+json is to establish some conventions for linking that allow the development of generic tools for doing hypermedia. Not to create magical machine clients that can interact with any random API you point them at. Nobody made that argument so I don't know why DHH addressed it in his post. I'm guessing he ran out of things to be an angry-pragmatist about.