I don't work at or have any affiliation with Stripe. I saw Patrick Mckenzie (the author) tweeting about this article and thought it would be a good fit for HN.
Generally speaking yes. However it can be gamed for sure, just not consistently in the long run. Not saying Stripe did this in this particular case (in fact I'd think quite the opposite), but just like Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter's situation, it can be done with the right motivation.