I can't say if you meant it pedantically, but every person would have their own perspective on life changing posts. And the fact that this showed up on front page, is a good indication that it has appealed to people.
Your parent comment was probably sarcastic and I appreciate the sarcasm. It does not take a lot for a post to come to front page. It takes only 4-5 people who care to view the 'new' page at the same time the post was hanging there and upvote. After a post comes to the front page it will surely gather more votes because the post is now visible to a very large HN audience.
There may be better posts that might have appealed to more people but did not make it to the front page because the post could not find the 4-5 people who care enough to vote on it.
