Because he was a coder working on his startup with no concern for the massive amounts of harm he was causing and many of the denizens of HN can relate to that.
I mostly agree, but I would like to see the full context of the hitman stuff. My understanding is that it was a law enforcement plant that encouraged him to hire a hitman and then referred him to one, which was of course also a plant. Still bad, but also seems a bit like entrapment.