Well, you made my evening by actually getting that particular point and finding it interesting. That is so rare! And it's such an interesting phenomenon.
I stumbled on this because the moderation job involves reading tons of comments I wouldn't otherwise see, and the various descriptions of HN they contain are quite incompatible. But they all fit the pattern described above.
An exercise I've now decided to undertake is as follows:
Every time I see something that I feel is "uncritical adoration" I will challenge myself to look for evidence for the opposite of that in the same thread. I'll start with HN, but if this works I want to extend that elsewhere.