I'm not sure why that post would necessarily be flagged (and I can't see it since it has been flagged). But there are a couple of odd things here: first, your e

I'm not sure why that post would necessarily be flagged (and I can't see it since it has been flagged). But there are a couple of odd things here: first, your example of talking about GitHub stars is more about using the stars, eg, what they are, projects that organize them, etc. Relatively few of these posts appear to be projects that just have gained a number of stars. But those posts still do exist, so your conclusion that people are just flagging development successes doesn't seem to be correct. Secondly, your post getting flagged probably doesn't indicate that HN is "losing its soul". I'm guessing that there was some difference between your original post and the ones you're comparing it to that is causing it to be perceived badly. You should reevaluate your submission, see if there's anything that might be breaking any of the site's guidelines, then edit it and resubmit.