Surely this is preferable to the trivial circumvention of your proposal where you just ask a friend to post something for you. A trick that basically silences all Redditors that would otherwise complain about “ads”. I’d rather people just post their own stuff and we judge the content on its own basis.

I think this is exactly what HN is for. You're free to promote your project. It's just a shame that this project, while a technical achievement, puts them solidly on moral low ground.