Replying so negatively to a particular comment when it's meta about the thread in general wouldn't have made much sense. HN's taboo against asking people if the

Replying so negatively to a particular comment when it's meta about the thread in general wouldn't have made much sense. HN's taboo against asking people if they've read the article is also wildly outdated -- its readership is too big and broad for the underlying assumption about tact being discursively superior to directness to hold. So you have to outright tell people they haven't read the article, when it's very apparent that they haven't. It's frustrating.