I'm also confused. Tornado is definitely a more compelling web framework. Who doesn't want the ability to have tons and tons and tons of long-lived connections?
So it may not have been the best resource to present on HN in the first place.
To your point, I'd be curious to see a non-Tornado server that is Tornado compatible on the backend. It could be an interesting project. I would counter, however, that any server choice has its own inertia--changing web servers is hardly ever a simple process.