I don't believe so. Just incremental improvements, no breakthrough. As for HN popularity, that is often a matter of chance. If a submission gets a few early upv

I don't believe so. Just incremental improvements, no breakthrough. As for HN popularity, that is often a matter of chance. If a submission gets a few early upvotes and makes it to frontpage, it snowballs from there, often regardless of anything particularly noteworthy.