There's definitely room for lightweight positive comments. Those are a natural part of healthy conversation. What we don't want are the shallow dismissal or name-calling kind; not anywhere on HN, but especially not in Show HNs, which have extra rules along those lines (https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html).
(We also don't want the kind of thread that fills up with booster comments from friends/fans/users, usually after someone passed a link around. But that's a separate issue.)
I agree with you that posting links to alternatives isn't great in a Show HN thread or a startup launch thread, but people are always going to do that - it's how the mind works (associatively). We usually downweight such comments when we see them, which ranks them lower in the thread. But of course there are many we don't see. (Edit: and yeah, you were right - this thread was full of them. Not good.)
Applause for substantive feedback! including what you provided the OP here!
(We also don't want the kind of thread that fills up with booster comments from friends/fans/users, usually after someone passed a link around. But that's a separate issue.)
I agree with you that posting links to alternatives isn't great in a Show HN thread or a startup launch thread, but people are always going to do that - it's how the mind works (associatively). We usually downweight such comments when we see them, which ranks them lower in the thread. But of course there are many we don't see. (Edit: and yeah, you were right - this thread was full of them. Not good.)
Applause for substantive feedback! including what you provided the OP here!