Text is a bad way of conveying tone, though there was the smiley at the end. I interpreted it the same as you, but I can see how a lot of people would miss the tone.

Poe's Law is why the internet doesn't get sarcasm - that without additional information, it's impossible to differentiate between an extreme position and one mocking it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

The comment we're talking about was skillfully constructed, there's only one way of interpreting it. On a phone so quoting from memory, but the second paragraph starting "that's why I am spending the time perusing HN..." is just an elegant way of saying that the first paragraph was tongue in cheek.