It's quite possible meta stories are the most upvoted category of all. I posted an article about how HN was moderated and it netted more karma than anything else I've ever done on this site, by a wide margin.
Exactly, the "self analysis" bias is very strong and probably has its roots in psychology. HN's psychologically mature audience and mods (comparatively) probably tones down that tendency a bit, but many platforms need a separate meta category to prevent the community from spiraling around itself.
