It's easy to use snark to dismiss someone's problem.
Why show the domain at all if you can hover over the links? For a minimalistic interface like HN you'd think there would be a reason for it. And if people are identifying content based on that URL, it's probably best to make it descriptive when subdomains have very different content.
Plus, many touchscreen devices don't have an easy way to see where a link is pointing to, even on devices with 'hover' functionality.
