Admittedly, it might not coincide with the ostensible subject matter of HN (other than it being tangentially related to statistical analysis and the technology

Admittedly, it might not coincide with the ostensible subject matter of HN (other than it being tangentially related to statistical analysis and the technology sector), but evidently, a nontrivial number of people see value in reading it. The entire point of HN is that is to organically select superior content. Differentiation and evaluation shouldn't happen before posting, it should happen afterwards and be conducted by the community. The whole point of HN is that nothing has to be strictly topical. Everyone is free to throw whatever the fuck they want into it, and the readership will identify and promote the best content.