For me the emphasis on the amount of votes is weird. When I browse HN, I look at what the topic is, and whether the thread has any comments. The more the comments, the more likely I am going to check them out. Then I open the comments view, and the actual website in another tab.

The Y meter for me is not important, and would be unnecessary visual noise. Sure, the amount of (up)voting decides whether I will even see the topic but I don't need to know the amount.

I have no idea whether this makes sense to others.