It's a good point, I suppose, but it doesn't have to be so black-and-white. There are certain exceptions to this no-account rule of course, like for your bank.

Now, would HN be better without an account? I believe it would, why not? I like lurking (and sometimes commenting) on HN though so I feel like creating an account is valid. Also, HN works fine without JS and has no trackers, which does tend to get me to create an account.