It's worth noting that LayerVault are the guys behind the "Flat Design" blog post that's been getting a fair bit of attention recently.
The article was purposefully brief and the author has commented that no one quite grasps his concept of the flat design principle[1], so I'll try not to comment on that blog post specifically.
DesignerNews really seems like a minimal aesthetic is getting in the way of minimal design. There's nothing wrong with minimal interfaces, but I really think DesignerNews is a case where some design decisions sacrificed functionality in favour of aesthetic.
[1] See his comment here (Allan G). The comment system is strangely lacking some key features like permalinks, unfortunately: https://news.layervault.com/stories/558-skeuomorphic-texture...