Yeah whatever damage (if any) HN does is child's play compared to the big players. Being explicitly about technology and related news rather than yourself makes a huge difference already. With consideration to the lack of aggressive personalization/click manipulation makes it hard to claim its even in the same game. It still is a social network at the end of the day though, least how I see it.
Providing a feature designed to make you use a product less is the antithesis of what the major social media sites do. Really inspires confidence in HN's motivations being pure.
