[degenerate]

I'm the original one that complained - and now that I used it as a bookmark reference (instead of being linked from HN) I do see the benefit of the back button. Maybe only have back button navigation if there is no existing history. That way, links to the tool don't hijack existing history items.

[Flimm]

With replaceState you can change the URL without adding an entry to the back button list. So you can have a back button that takes you back to HN and a bookmark reference.