You can't speak for everyone with that "nope". Many people can be indeed struck with the thought that these are over-engineered. Of course, your points are enough to convince most of us that the "over-engineered" thought is flat-out wrong, though. But we were still struck but this wrong thought initially.
Sorry to be pedantic here, surprised by the downvoting though.
> Do the cone-handling machines strike anyone else as over-engineered?
Taken literally, the answer is "yes" other people also get this wrong impression. So it's wrong to answer with "nope" just because you, as one person don't have the bad impression. Again, taken literally, the question isn't "are they over-engineered?" but "does anyone else get the impression I got?"
Consider: "anyone else grossed out by the idea of eating insects?" being answered with "Nope. They're fine, nutritious and delicious with nothing disgusting about it". I suppose the "nope" can mean "not me" but it literally is a claim that nobody else is grossed out.
I only clarify because I hope nobody missed that I wasn't disagreeing with the post I was replying to, I was just being pedantic. I should have marked it. There should be a pedantic-mark just like a sarcasm mark.
No, I don't think you're sorry to be pedantic. If you really were sorry, you would have made amends (e.g., deleting your comment) instead of doubling down.
Everyone understood just what you meant. (Every single person, literally.) Your pedantic observation was not new. People just thought it contributed nothing to the conversation. Around here you get downvoted for being off-topic, not just for being wrong.
There is a perfectly good pedantic-mark: it's called not replying in the first place.
By the time I noticed the downvoting and realized that I was a bit excessively pedantic, HN wouldn't let me edit or delete!! So I had no choice in making amends besides ignoring the whole thing or replying.
But I was indeed only partly sorry. Sometimes being pedantic is okay, what I meant was that I was sorry for being pedantic without explicitly acknowledging it.
To explain non-pedantically: I think it's interesting to note and acknowledge the tendency of people to have the wrong impression of over-engineered here. I think admitting that thought is appropriate, and I'd like to know how widespread it is. I also was certainly NOT clear that everyone was downvoting just because my comment was off-topic. I thought it might indeed be people misunderstanding me.
