Most likely it gets upvoted to the front page since most HN visitors have not yet read a post about it. I know that I hadn't. Also, stating "this is old news,

Most likely it gets upvoted to the front page since most HN visitors have not yet read a post about it. I know that I hadn't. Also, stating "this is old news, don't upvote it" has been done hundreds of times before, so your contribution is not better.