I wanted to create a design that I could use, so instead of pie-in-the-sky, I modified the CSS as suggested by the 'A Better HN: Aligned' post using Stylebot (awesome tool!). While its just a visual skin and not a complete UX overhaul at least its functional and useful right now.
Screenshot: http://cl.ly/1E182J1r0V040M3H302J

CSS: http://pastebin.com/JHEUQjcq

My concern with the previous designs I saw on HN were they weren't too readable.

In my design, I am giving prominence to the article title - bold and contrasty. The comments is what I personally like to see next and I went with a subdued orange/brown for these links. I increased the line-spacing and generally have a bit more white-space without overdoing it (you see about 15 of 30 articles above the fold on a 13" MBP). Additionally, I removed any distracting elements (such as the header or orange lines) except for the Y-Combinator logo.