Well, note who is explicitly excluded from the buyout:

"People working in the Software Group will not be allowed to join VSP, neither will folk with vice president in their title, nor exec/ distinguished directors in engineering or employees in India or Singapore."

I don't know who's included in the Software Group, but it probably includes a lot of people like those who read HN.

I once worked for a company where buyouts were offered - we had seen the handwriting on the wall for quite a while. Engineers were excluded and I was an engineer. They came nowhere near their target buyout numbers and finally, grudgingly, offered buyouts to engineers. I took the buyout.