You imply that the (unconfirmed) harm to the individual is more important to avoid than the harm to the society done by removing potentially insightful comment thread. Why is that?

Not sure - but your question implies that there is harm to the society done, and from your first part of the sentence, isn't that also unconfirmed?

I think it's clear that removing discussions from HN harms everyone, because there are many interesting ideas here.