> especially if you're in a community that praises those others

I was with you until this part. I have never seen praise of any large social network _or_ any growth-hacking dark patterns on HN.

You're not looking around enough. What do you think all those articles about marketing, promoting your startup & co., getting to $Nk passive income per month are about? Look past the flowery language.

Look at how many people are willing to ignore GitHub's transgressions. The privacy controls it provides are objectively worse than the other big companies that serve as the go-to examples when people try pointing to evil social networks. You can also step back and watch discussion of its dark patterns get buried in downvotes and illogical, half-thought out responses that attempt to rationalize them as Good Decisions that Make Sense, as if they're selected for any other reason than to drive up user acquisition and engagement.