In general, I believe comments such as this are downvoted on HN because they are interpreted as adding little or no value to the conversation while attempting to shift focus away from the topic at hand. I'm not saying that was your intention, but it might be perceived that way by people with the power to downvote (a power I don't have or care about much). This kind of policing is generally done here with the intention of keeping the site from turning into just another subreddit.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but there's very little consistency in this behaviour. The large amount of bikeshedding over trivial matters (a project name, a license version, etc...) shows people share their opinion regardless of whether it adds depth or is strictly relevant to the conversation.
