Why is the text of that section unchanged when he decided not to reveal it after all - are people who can figure it out (as he assumed everyone would when he wrote it) not entitled to as good a story as people who can't?
Figuring it out != getting it spoiled.
I was confident of that fact well before that section of the story. I would expect anyone with knowledge of canon to suspect a connection between the two characters.
But if you didn't get it spoiled, you get to test your hypothesis against every new piece of evidence, and it's a much more entertaining read.
If it's a better story without revealing that at that time, why did he write the chapter in such a way as he thought at the time it was an obvious reveal?
Because he was convinced that it was a better story without it, after he wrote that chapter and AN.
EDIT: (responding to unmarked edit above)
People are very annoyed when it gets spoiled. "People". Not you, you already knew it. I am annoyed now. Who are these people?
All of my friends either enjoy speculating about that fact because it wasn't spoiled, or are annoyed that it was spoiled. I was annoyed when it was spoiled for me, in the original AN.
(responding to unmarked edit above)
Is it a norm on Less Wrong that there is not a "grace period" to make an edit within a few seconds after posting and before anyone has replied, to make minor corrections or to add something that the user forgot to say and just realized after submitting the comment?
(Also, did I really deserve -8 karma for my opinions on this issue, or is it just a matter of -2 not seeming so bad when you do it four times?)
The next discussion thread is here.
This is a new thread to discuss Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and anything related to it. This thread is intended for discussing chapter 84. The previous thread has passed 500 comments. Comment in the 14th thread until you read chapter 84.
There is now a site dedicated to the story at hpmor.com, which is now the place to go to find the authors notes and all sorts of other goodies. AdeleneDawner has kept an archive of Author’s Notes. (This goes up to the notes for chapter 76, and is now not updating. The authors notes from chapter 77 onwards are on hpmor.com.)
The first 5 discussion threads are on the main page under the harry_potter tag. Threads 6 and on (including this one) are in the discussion section using its separate tag system. Also: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
As a reminder, it’s often useful to start your comment by indicating which chapter you are commenting on.
Spoiler Warning: this thread is full of spoilers. With few exceptions, spoilers for MOR and canon are fair game to post, without warning or rot13. More specifically: