If users didn't flag opinion pieces on hot divisive topics, HN's front page would consist of nothing but opinion pieces about hot divisive topics. As that would be an entirely different site, user flags are vital to preserving HN for its intended mandate. As I put it years ago, we need those white blood cells.

If you want to call that an "organized fringe group trying to control the narrative", I suppose it's really just a different way of wording the same thing.´

Please keep in mind that making something a divisive topic is a specific and intentional strategy for suppressing speech.

When I look at /new and /active, where flagged topics are present, I definitely don't see them "consist of nothing but opinion pieces and hot divisive topics."