The upvotes are likely from people wondering "is there something to see here?", who want to get HN's two cents on the topic, which turns out to be very boring,

The upvotes are likely from people wondering "is there something to see here?", who want to get HN's two cents on the topic, which turns out to be very boring, as you explained. Edit: Any reason for the downvote? I genuinely tried to answer ghshephard's question. I don't think it's that off-base that people want to see what the HN community thinks about this piece of news. In other news, I just discovered I'm too sensitive about downvotes :).