I think it's the latter, and there is definitely a possibility that it's a behavior in usage that makes the difference. But I don't think we should rule out that the HN crowd just likes to nitpick. ;)
I definitely couldn't find the skip control after quite a bit of looking. Maybe I just had a dumb moment, or it's due to how I approach these things, but mine, at least, wasn't due to nitpicking! Can't speak for anybody else, of course.
