Thankfully Hacker News isn't interested in hijacking my brain or addicting me or making money off of me. Yet it still does hijack my brain; oddly enough the only real way to steer clear of this, is to steer clear of Hacker News.
I see you engaging in good faith in this debate. I'm also heartened by your self-awareness about how HN hijacks your brain. FWIW, I'm in the same boat, and I still come back here.
I'll share something that might mitigate some of your turmoil: with any ascendant (and disruptive) technology, the only way to criticize it is by leveraging that technology.
Socrates' lament on the dangers of literacy is known today because it was written down (yes, by Plato... but it was written down).