There isn't anything wrong with using Hacker News. The loneliness epidemic is real. Technology was intended to supplement our in-person interactions; not subsume it.

I empathize with the anecdote. The person who moves away that keeps everyone together; that's real. Not everyone has the social presence to pull that off. Communities come and go with those linchpin organizers. Some people can try to be the linchpin, but if the replacement person doesn't have that "it" factor, the community does indeed crumble.