Its just regular intellectual curiosity.

Sure, but you'll need to do more than "read several HN articles over the years" (presumably completely unrelated to anti-cheats?) to get even a basic understanding of how anti-cheats work, as he went on to demonstrate.

I also just thought it was unintentionally funny, like a comedic setup for a stereotypically cocky HN user to comment with great confidence on something way outside of their field of expertise. (not saying that's the case for mjevans)

Yes, that stereotype irritates me because it stigmatizes people asking the obvious questions.