And for HN, the "algorithm" is the subjective judgment of the moderation staff, as witnessed by countless articles on the misogyny in tech (as an example) getting axed from the front page.

Or maybe those subjective articles on misogyny in tech are flagged by users like me.

The biggest factor there by far is user flags.

This is a nice way to punt, but you've (in the plural sense, not you specifically) have still admitted to removing them from the frontpage.