But it's true. And if you can understand reactions such as yours, you are really at the bleeding edge... It's not about right or wrong, but rather, knowing what is up. It's about knowing why people say the things they say. With an open mind, comments such as this can be just as enlightening.
Back in the day, I remember seeing the Japanese ./ site and being disappointed by the quality of submissions and comments compared to the English site. Now I look at HN and feel the same about /. And if anything comes along that makes me feel that way about HN, that is where I'll be... But until then!
It really isn't. I've wandered onto random IRC channels and found myself bathed in realms of technical knowledge that simply don't come up here, and made more genuine connections.
No one community is at the center of things. Ever. It's not how the world works. The best you can get, as leading edges go, is little glimpses of a new idea in a limited space, before it's had any chance to diffuse. Media aggregators come much, much later in the lifecycle. For a certain slice of tech, HN may be professionally necessary - but otherwise it's not that advantageous.
Not center of course. Just one edge is probably more accurate.
But I don't think you realize just how hard it is for a normal person to randomly hop on an IRC channel and be bathed and be able to keep up with it and make friends. If HN feels redundant then consider that serious validation of your competence and the league you are in. I tip my hat.
That's... disturbing.