It's not cryptic. This was all hashed out on the announcement thread. Pinboard won HN's endorsement overwhelmingly, but Pinboard itself isn't a good fit for YCF. When "Apply HN" was conceived of, it wasn't clear that the winners would still need to be interviewed by YC. It became clear that they'd need to be. An interview step was added. Maciej talked to Kevin, Kevin decided not to move forward with Pinboard.
If YC does an "Apply HN" thing again, no doubt the interview step will be in the announcement, but it wasn't this time.
If YC does an "Apply HN" thing again, no doubt the interview step will be in the announcement, but it wasn't this time.
The rest is just miscommunication and bad optics.