What doesn't follow? Who said we should repeal section 230? Or to do so without replacing it?

Not me, I said I was ambivalent about it; don't put words in my mouth. My words were: "there would have to be some similar provision [to KYC]". Similar, not the same. Not nothing.

Everything else sounds like you imagining/speculating about what some future provision would look like. And your imagined fears don't play into my ambivalence.

Imagine an arts and crafts company. The company wants to create a forum where users can share pictures and advice of their creations. There must be moderators, because unmoderated image boards become cesspools of CSAM and scams. Let's assume Section 230 doesn't exist or at least doesn't provide such a strong shield against liability.

Does a company moderator need to review every post? That might be feasible for a low-population community, but it can be expensive.

But let's assume that's the protocol. A post is submitted and reviewed by a moderator. How does the moderator know if the post violates a law? Is the moderator a lawyer with knowledge of all laws? If not, every post is a roll of the dice for paying unpredictable fines or the end of the business.

Without Section 230, any lawyers' advice for hosting user content would be simple: "Don't."

Here's my paraphrased view of the comment chain:

1. stillpointlab: "I'm ambivalent about Section 230. Also [other things not discussed further]."

2. applfanboysbgon: "Hey, you can't be ambivalent about Section 230, removing it would be disastrous, any website like HN would be in shambles."

3. stillpointlab: "Websites would be OK if that happened, there would just have to be some provisions around anonymity."

5. Terr_: "Where did this talk of anonymity come from? That's not what Section 230 does."

6. stillpointlab: "Who said anything about removing Section 230? I didn't say that and I wasn't talking about that happening."

7. [Error: Recursion detected]

In other words, the thread was was steered into "what if Section 230 went away" (at #2) and your reply looks as if you recognized that and proceeded to build on it.