Comments are still rank-penalized and detached, so that's not exactly a thing of the past. I am not arguing dang is doing a bad job--I'm arguing that their job

Comments are still rank-penalized and detached, so that's not exactly a thing of the past. I am not arguing dang is doing a bad job--I'm arguing that their job is done with an eye more towards keeping a community in line with YC interests than promoting pure free-speech or hacker culture. That includes things like killing off certain contentious posts, removing grossly off-topic material, and a lot of other frankly decent moderation.