Did you end up hearing back on that? Though I'm not super invested in this article specifically I'm a bit curious.
I regularly see interesting stuff that sits well within the tech sphere get flagged off of hn especially during heated times and it can be a bit sad seeing that. I'd love for hn and its community to be better at handling challenging discussions but I know that's a complex thing to try and fix.
Been here for something like 15 years now and it's often a toss up whether we handle sensitive subjects / posts with grace or not. Sometimes we get some great discussions going and sometimes the comment sections are trashfires or it's just flagged to death.
Edit: It's now flagged. Reaching out to hn@ycombinator.com to see if it's able to be restored.