But because it's for a subject the HN audience is interested in, it actually gets upvotes unlike those sites, so a lot of people reading these get reintroduced to the format.

Tenish years ago we had slop / listicles already and thankfully our curated internet filters helped us avoid them (but the older generation who came across them through Facebook and the like). But now they're back, and thanks to AI they don't need people who actually know what they're talking about to write articles aimed at e.g. the HN audience (because the people who know what they're talking about refuse to write slop... I hope)