You’ve said it better than I could have.
Many people on HN probably know your handle/identity, if only by virtue of you referring to it in your comments somewhat systematically.
You manage your identity with an SEO mindset indeed. I do not mean to offend, but it does read just as fake as any SEO search results.
I make sure that I can be found and attributed. I deleted my last anonymous account, a couple of years ago. In the Days of Yore, I was pretty much "Dick From the Internet." A real neckbeard troll.
There's a lot of reasons that I do it. The biggest, is that I want to be in control of my narrative. I learned from a couple of folks that are really good at curating their SEO results.
Also, these days (for a change), I'm pretty well-behaved. Doing it this way, helps to keep it that way.