Within the confines of his own blog, the author should have every right to make this kind of post. Promoting any company to your audience means putting your reputation on the line. Any recommendation you make yourself is within this social contract, which is why it’s non-controversial.

“Native Ads” OTOH present themselves as something they are not. They are controversial precisely because they break the contract the author or editor have with their audience.

As to the inclusion on HN I suppose it is a little weird, but I think it can be explained by name recognition, for example from a recent Joe Rogan’s podcast, which I think is quite popular here.

I suppose your point is that the article doesn’t quite deliver on the title. I would agree, but my contention is with the pejorative connotation of calling something a “native ad”, which I think is undeserved.