No. It's real. According to dang, showHN is suppose to be a "safe space". You could make absolute crap, everyone is suppose to be positive about it. Dang will flag people who don't do this.

Nothing dang can do though is hundreds of people hate it though. Things with actual security issues for example he'll likely just be quiet about it.

That is unfortunate. You would think that the intent behind posting ShowHN is to get constructive feedback but based on what you described, it appears that the expectation is to make those creators feel good instead.

You still can, just have to be excessively nice about it. Huge emphasis on excessively.