alt Hacker NewsI don't think that's true at all.
One of the things HN does is not let you interact in certain ways until you've earned sufficient karma. This is a basic proof-of-work. If your bot can't average a positive karma, then it'll never get certain privileges.
Not to say the system is perfectly tuned for bots, because it's not. The point is that proof of identity is not the only option.
HN is almost entirely about the comments. Voting is useful as a tool for loosely sorting content but otherwise, HN could easily do without it. Some of the most valuable comments come from people with barely any karma. And that’s why HN is great! The restrictions on voting and flagging for new users could be removed without impacting the quality of HN. I can’t imagine any scenario in which HN’s current system could survive the same slopification that is happening on reddit.
HN is doing okay at the moment because nobody is yet publishing ebooks and videos on how to astroturf HN to launch your SaaS. Unfortunately, Reddit hasn’t escaped that fate.