A more accurate comparison would be between HN and niche subreddit of roughly equal size and traffic. Not that I am or am willing to put in the work to make such a comparison, but I suspect the quality differential then would be smaller than a lot of people assume.

Many Reddit moderators straight up ban people who post stuff they don't agree with.

The fact that your comment here isn’t deleted is a testament to how wrong your comment is.

Set "show dead" == "yes".

(For other users: your own account page.)

In practice, who the editor is and how they execute the task matters tremendously.

There's a frequent mantra by a certain segment of the population, tending to "but who should judge?", or the more pointed "what gives you the right to judge?"

My answer to the first is "someone who's quite good at it, and takes the responsibility seriously".

To the second: "who are you to say I cannot?" We are all judgement-making machines, so long as we have a functioning intellect. We're trying to fit our heads around an external reality, and, generally, make better rather than worse choices.

I'm a fan of systems with checks and balances, with principle, and with transparency. HN scores well on some points, less so on. others (notably transparency). A problem with transparency reports is that excessive detail is tedious and cantip off malevolent actors, insufficient can hide many sins.

(And, generally, do an excellent job in my view. Not perfect, but it's a difficult, unending, and greatly-underthanked task.)