Your argument sucks because by appealing to authority of an active HN member, any retort is going to involve criticizing an active HN member who's not party to the conversation.
Heh, now there's an aspect I'd never considered: maybe HN has become the kind of place where people are afraid to say true things? I don't think so, though. At least, not yet. If something is true, it's usually met favorably. Especially critiques. Speaking your mind (tactfully) is one of the most important aspects of a community, otherwise it's merely an echo chamber.
Blaming the hypothetical people that one might imagine would look on the replier badly is not adequate justification for putting the replier in that position.
