I don't think that was what made HN prevail against similar sites that were popular in the past. In my opinion, it is the fact that it is tied to Y Combinator and lots of startups/founders that made it stick. Something that is not technical at all.
Not me! For a number of years, I was like "what's with that domain, never heard of ycombinator, oh well, can't be bothered reading up on it right now, anyway, great content here, and nice minimal interface, I'll keep coming back".
