> I prefer HN to be about the content, not its hominem

In some sense, the hominem is in the eye of the beholder. The vast majority of people on HN are smart enough to use the information for its useful purpose and not use it for attacking other authors based on whereabouts, doing so will only damage the offender's standing here.

> If country/etc is relevant for discussion it can be voluntarily mentioned.

This misses the important case of relevant location info that the author fails to mention, and I'm pretty sure these will be the majority of cases.

People in different countries have different perspectives and knowing where the authors are located can help to understand their reasoning.

Bot farms in cheap countries are another problem that can be reduced by location info, those who absolutely must have their location hidden can use VPNs.