I think you are justified in feeling the way that you do. Nobody is suggesting that the "front runners' posts only made it there because of bandwagoning" I thi

I think you are justified in feeling the way that you do. Nobody is suggesting that the "front runners' posts only made it there because of bandwagoning" I think you and all other applicants deserved all the community interest they got. What is being highlighted by myself, and other users (who have no vested interest, unlike me and you) is that engagement did fall off sharply after the first 2-3 days. As a result of which applications submitted after the first few days didn't receive the as much scrutiny from the community. HN ranks posts by upvotes/square of time since submission. It is possible that a mere 2-3 votes can make the difference between a post reaching the front page and receiving several times more eyeballs vs getting buried. And the sharp drop in interest in ApplyHN's from the community can and did make such a difference for several applicants.