Not saying that paywall complaints are okay, but just because YCombinator decrees it so, doesn't mean that we can't offer an opinion about something. If Hacker News instituted put in the FAQ that links to blogs was not okay and no discussion is allowed, that doesn't mean we shouldn't complain about it if we think it's bad for the site.
The issue is how many people actually read the linked article when paywalled before leaving a comment on the thread.
Which leads to a drop in discussion quality since nobody even knows the content of the article at first place, so it quickly becomes totally off topic.
