I suspect it's because he posts reddit-style free writing stories. Maybe a year or two that was unacceptable on HN, but given that at this point, HN and reddit are indistinguishable from each other, I agree that there's no point in keeping him shadowbanned.
I'm not sure where your hostile tone is coming from -- I prefer reddit to HN, and don't have any issues with them being (more) similar. I only used that as a descriptor for his stories because I've heard that used as an explicit reason for people having downvoted/flagged similar types of posts in the past.
