I don't really think it is that obnoxious personally, but I do know that some people make a big stink about such things. To save yourself the headache, it is probably best to direct link submit to HN/Reddit.
I also understand the reality that certain users or certain websites are far more likely to get their content to the top of HN/Reddit/Digg.
For example, Jeff Atwood could do a blog post of Lorem Ipsum text and it would probably hit the front page of these social news sites. Probably the same for Joel On Software or Daring Fireball. Those sites have such a high readership that they will naturally get submitted and upvoted. The same thing happens whenever Steve Jobs writes a personal note on Apple.com. It becomes news whether it's terribly newsworthy or not.
