Sure, content is important, should be high quality, and needs to be somewhat restricted to what interests us. But AFAIC, the purpose of the content is to build the community. Almost any article I find here I can find somewhere else. But I can't find the same quality of discussion as here.
I do use data from hn as a resource in my work, but only minimially. Most of what I do requires long hours and hard work, not outside input.
I have had the great opportunity to form many friendships here, most on-line, but quite a few in person too, through meet-ups, etc. I don't make many friends who are in the same line of work as me, so I really value relationships here.
Like many hackers, I spend long periods of time alone. Hacker News does a great job serving as my virtual water cooler/break room. Having cool things to talk about is a nice bonus.