I don't read the GP as questioning the worth to HN, but simply asking if the article is a general interest article or if there is some specific reason the article is especially relevant at this moment in time.

Yes, it's possible this was simply a "historical submission", but that possibility alone doesn't answer the question. We shouldn't be in such a hurry to protect HN from degenerating into (say) /. that we make assumptions about intent or silence relevant and potentially interesting questions.

This has been discussed previously, 4 months & 2 years ago. Wouldn't it make sense to group re-posts automatically into the prior discussion so users can track comments?

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=https:%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2...

I agree. Someone here said HN is like a gym. Sometimes people chit-chat, some show off, some 'talk shop', some quietly just do their thing.