Not necessarily. I often find my self upvoting articles that either seem interesting or have interesting discussions in order to go back to them and review them. Most often than not I read the comments first and then the article.

If someone would implement some code pattern depending on the number of votes that pattern has on HN they have a bigger problem than how HN voting works.

FWIW, I read the comments first to make a decision whether to read or not the linked article.