I'd argue that if random John Doe is giving away their projects and that is on HN's front page, it's actually the better story. Then there's a bit of a puzzle: why? Why did people upvote this? What's interesting about it? And you have to work a little to find out. It excites curiosity, and if it doesn't, nothing will happen. That's a better starting point for HN than "new development in a hot story". Hotness and curiosity are at odds with one another.

i didn't recognize the name so it would not have made a difference for me, but having this posted on HN hinted that this is significant, and not some random little used projects.