I think it's a mistake to compare HN to Reddit, however since HN is a single forum and Reddit, really, is a network of forums. There are subreddits with lower standards than here, but there are others with higher standards.
However, a lot of HN users also use Reddit (including, I suspect, a fair contingent of the "hipsters" I just mentioned) and they will have platform specific complaints, such as hating the new layout (which is objectively terrible) or this and that subreddit being banned or quarantined because the mods are out to censor this or that political group, etc. That's just Reddit drama spilling over to here, though.
Of course, YMMV. There's a lot of pro-Reddit sentiment as well, and people mention subreddits they frequent. And a lot of content from programming subreddits gets cross-posted here.
I'd says there's an appreciation that HN is a different community and some jealousy in defending it. Each time reddit ratchets up its suck quotient there's a new wave of refugees. There's "instructing noobs and emphasizing this isn't reddit" and there's "hating on reddit" and I think the distinction is valuable enough to continue observing.
Hating on reddit would be pointless. It's like the ocean, it's there weather you chose to swim in it or not. Better: It's a big, protected bay on the ocean, and it was fun to swim in til the big ships started running over the little fish, and the outflow from the mines on shore got nastier.
HN's a smaller quieter cove with as yet fewer people pissing in it. That alone makes it feel more welcoming than reddit. Of course there's detractors of this board too; JWZ is apparently unimpressed for one.