HN is really well moderated IMO and I think you are right in giving credit for its success to this superb moderation. However I think you are wrong in assuming

HN is really well moderated IMO and I think you are right in giving credit for its success to this superb moderation. However I think you are wrong in assuming HN has remained non-political. There is a lot of politics going on in most threads. While blatant partisan shoutouts are usually not voted to the top and remain at low impact. Participants regularly engage in heavy political discourse. This includes responsibility to security breaches, workers rights (especially those of tech workers; e.g. should remote working be encourage; is flexible vacation policy good actually), taxation policy (especially those around start-ups), housing policy, transportation policy, justification of international sanctions and their effects, etc.