In other words, are there any blockchains that HN (generally speaking) has a positive opinion of?

I can't speak for all of HN but I seriously doubt there was ever a need for the technology to begin with.

I've read numerous investigative articles on Bitcoin, in particular, that document the environmental impact and harm it does to workers who live in remote data centers. The situation is poor. And few, if any, bitcoin enthusiasts see these as problems. From what I understand the consensus among bitcoin enthusiasts is that we'll technology our way out of this and somehow we'll live in their techno-libertarian-utopia once they figure these things out.

Frankly I don't share their ideology.