They may not have realized that no one can read it. ScienceDirect silently lets you past the paywall if you arrive from Google Scholar. I imagine that HN strips query parameters, and even if it doesn't, the token is only usable by one person.
That may be. I also just learned that you need to be logged into a Google account.
It's not a great solution anyway, a far cry from open access. But I feel like any hole in a research paywall should be public knowledge, however small and clunky it maybe.
