If HN had a "pin" feature for comments, this would take the cake.

It feels far too coincidental for this not to be relevant. Fashion/busybodies of font stylists and marketing and display variance may play a part, but the timing cannot be unrelated.

Fwiw you can "favorite" comments - you need to select/"go to" the comment (click the timestamp) - then click "favorite".

Like with stories, upvotes ar private, favourites are public:

https://qqrl.tk/favorites?id=e12e&comments=t

Wow. I did not know that “design patents” were a thing, but that puts some additional context into the churn of typefaces. Thanks!