You can flag a story (which helps in moderation, dont know the details). While I do understand that HN is NOT a democratic platform, and do agree with you and

You can flag a story (which helps in moderation, dont know the details). While I do understand that HN is NOT a democratic platform, and do agree with you and tptacek, that YC companies should get the fringe benefit of visibility on HN, but It would make more sense to have higher weightage to such posts while ranking, than creating a separate class.