I don't agree. Go search for HN threads relating to anything Sam Altman has said publicly, interviews he's given etc and you'll see that they always get posted

I don't agree. Go search for HN threads relating to anything Sam Altman has said publicly, interviews he's given etc and you'll see that they always get posted multiple times on HN and the biggest thread always has 100s if not 1000s of comments. This content was going to be wildly shared and discussed whether deleted or not, by deleting it they have at least a) made an official (yet soft, as it doesn't address any specific points) statement that it's not information they're trying to put out and b) probably reduced SEO / future views beyond these current discussions. I can't see any argument for it getting more attention because of deletion than it would have got anyway?