Nope. I just think that the submission's merit is independent of the page full of awful comments it generated. The submission itself seems about as HN worthy

Nope. I just think that the submission's merit is independent of the page full of awful comments it generated. The submission itself seems about as HN worthy as other "X leaves Y" submissions. IMO, the comments are a problem in the HN community, not a problem in the submission. Pragmatically though, flagging the story and getting whatever this comment section off the front page probably makes sense.