The part of Reddit I go to is roughly equal parts memes, serious discussions and derailed threads.

Here I feel like I just lost the first part, so 50/50 between serious discussions and derailed threads.

Either is moderated to be without anything eye-gouging (again, comparing HN to specific subreddits that would carry similar content, and not reddit as a whole).

Sure, some individuals might prefer things this way, but it's definitely not objectively better as the general attitude towards reddit and against any humor seems to suggest.