HN's UI is clear, accessible, and uncluttered. If you want something different, they expose an API which everyone and their mother has written a client with, including native apps for mobile. The only JS on the site is in place to reduce the page reloads you were worried about.
It's certainly not "uncluttered" on mobile, where the text and vote buttons are so tiny and crowded together that it's super easy to tap the wrong thing.
What is the problem here?