Yea, that Excel-table-like design probably breaks all design rules.
It surprises me most when I occasionally see design professionals complementing it.
I am rather a backend programmer and I have no illusions.
But even the Hacker News audience does not have enough geekiness to understand my previous attempt at a movie recommender system: http://5000best.com/movie-galaxy/
Honestly, it may not be a priority for you. I was NOT trying to bash. I just thought it was funny that the interface was drawing praise.
As a UX Specialist at my agency, I see interfaces like this all the time (I'm usually being paid to fix them). We call this aesthetic "engineers designing". Don't take it too hard, I'm sure my PHP looks like designers engineering :)
So after I used the site, my first thought was, "That's awesome, but it's definitely painful to interact with; engineers designing." Then I pop to the comments and the first one is about how much they like the interface. Excellent HN moment for me there.