[Rochus]

> Ok you're arguing that dark mode itself is useless

I didn't say it's useless; there are use cases where dark mode is useful, e.g. "people with cataract and related disorders may perform better with dark mode" (from the Nielsen study). But it doesn't make much sense to add a feature just because it is fashionable, and not because it has a true advantage. If the people in charge of HN decided to change their site, there would be far more useful features than dark mode. I think that was the OP was referring to with "gateway to more useless stuff": if fashion and not usefulness is the number one priority, then a good product could render useless and development resources are wasted.