I'm saying that by moving towards explicit "search" and "linking to sources" they have set the stage for being able to charge to be recommended by their search features (ie, ads and pay-to-rank, same as Google search).

There aren't any ads in their demo, we haven't seen the real deal yet, but I'll be watching HN for that day.

Why, just because search has ads therefore anything that is a superset of that must also?

Because ads bring money and companies love money

Over the past two decades, ads have proven to be the only way to make money over the internet…

They're making $300 million per month in revenue right now, with no ads.

That is what Google makes in less than half a day by selling ads. It’s a rounding error on their monthly revenue.