No-one is suggesting that. You can control whether you see them or give them more publicity though.
> Also denying links to their site isn't equivalent to "leaving the room".
True, it's more like locking the door to not let them in. Which, I think you'd agree, is everyone's prerogative if there's a constant stream of assholes coming through the door purely to shit on the carpet.
> If your site can't be linked to it can't be the topic of discussion.
Well, it can. It may not be as convenient as people like but then why would the target of abuse be concerned about the convenience for the abusive party?
It has nothing to with "not letting assholes in". Asahi Linux doesn't have a discussion board.
To your third point, also no. HN guidelines keep the content of our posts relevant to the topics they are in. They also guide us to link to original sources, not archive links. Both of these mean that if you can't link to Asahi Linux content, it can't be the topic of discussion unless for some reason it's otherwise newsworthy and was posted elsewhere.
How does blocking HN from linking to a site silence discussion on HN? Because, as you say, "100% of the discussion was happening on HN" which seems to imply that blocking HN from linking didn't actually silence the discussion.
> Both of these mean that if you can't link to Asahi Linux content, it can't be the topic of discussion
You can link to it - you just get the "HN referer" block page just as other people get other block pages (eg. [0], [1]. Haven't noticed people moaning about how those sites are silencing discussion on HN, mind.)
Copy and paste the URL and you can read the link perfectly happily[2].
[0] Much like many of us in Europe get block pages for sites in the US who can't be bothered with GDPR or the cookie law.
[1] Or those of us who aren't subscribed to the various news sites which show a paragraph before putting up a blocker.
[2] Or someone pastes an archive.ph link.
People whine about GDPR blocks and paywalls all the time. But also, clearly, those sites are not specifically targeting HN. It's not the same thing.
Also denying links to their site isn't equivalent to "leaving the room". It's more like demolishing the room entirely, given the way that HN works. If your site can't be linked to it can't be the topic of discussion.