Having read through, I think mostly the only clarification I'd offer is that I don't think it's bad or wrong for HN to provide value to YC by way of interest.
I was meaning to say almost exactly, "the way to maximize HN's value to YC is to maximize how interesting it is to the community"... so that when YC (and its companies) need interesting people to solve interesting problems, they're already here. It seems like you agree with that, though you do call it "cynical" and "hard-nosed business" reasoning.
"Marketing" is sometimes treated like a 4 letter word but that's not how I meant it.
"Interesting" however, seems like a very important word (it's mentioned 24 times in those 15 comments)!
I was meaning to say almost exactly, "the way to maximize HN's value to YC is to maximize how interesting it is to the community"... so that when YC (and its companies) need interesting people to solve interesting problems, they're already here. It seems like you agree with that, though you do call it "cynical" and "hard-nosed business" reasoning.
"Marketing" is sometimes treated like a 4 letter word but that's not how I meant it.
"Interesting" however, seems like a very important word (it's mentioned 24 times in those 15 comments)!