I've always understood hackers to be a subset of users at HN. Maybe there were more in the early days, but with the growth of the startup business model, a lot of different users were attracted to the site. The core value seems to be interest in technology and the cultures around it. Emphasis own the plurality of cultures because I think there are multiple, competing ones. Though, as per guidelines, any story interesting to users is acceptable for submission.

HN is only a name, in reality it's VC news.