[chroem-]

Many people would already consider HN to be a bay area-centric echo chamber. Based on the examples you listed, this seems to be an argument to explicitly enforce that echo chamber so that nonconforming posts are blocked outright. At that point, why even bother allowing users to discuss things at all, if posters are only allowed to agree with each other?

[jgwil2]

Nowhere does GP suggest anything of the sort. Only suggestion is to weigh upvotes less heavily relative to recency in determining comment order.