Your first sentence is true and relevant. Your second is, in a certain light, false (and a bit mean). pg is definitely a hacker in the traditional sense, and much of the stuff posted here is on topic for hackers in the TMRC sense.
The shift in the last few decades is that hacking is now a thing that can result in becoming an accidental millionaire. That's going to have societal and cultural effects on the community, like it or not.
PG made a second rate e-commerce site and sold it to the most gullible company in the world (Yahoo!). He’s never been anything close to what would be considered a “hacker”. This site’s purpose has always been to shill for YC investments. Sometimes there tech talk that occurs but it’s not the reason HN exists.
The shift in the last few decades is that hacking is now a thing that can result in becoming an accidental millionaire. That's going to have societal and cultural effects on the community, like it or not.