I think one could argue that hn comments are a core feature which is designed to draw in new users and have them use/interact with the platform. No direct monet

I think one could argue that hn comments are a core feature which is designed to draw in new users and have them use/interact with the platform. No direct monetary transaction, but I assume the hope is for growing the hn brand and ultimately getting a small percentage of users to apply to yc. Also, undoubtedly, hn pays for the comments to be served, pays for the infrastructure to accept, store, and display comments, and has users moderating discussions. So I don't really see how it is different.