Saying that "a software engineer requires a baseline of understanding of software engineering" is substantive and anything short of that is not "thoughtful" or "kind" but rather disingenuous and sycophantic. Pretend nice is poison feed with delicious juice in fine china, looks good, might be delicious, but still hurts you in the long run.
My comment might have been different if you had said "a software engineer requires a baseline of understanding of software engineering", but that is not what you said.
What you said is "It is because you're unlikely a software engineer and just a learn programming or went through a really bad university.".
Saying he is unlikely a software engineer seems to imply OP is not being truthful, or is outright lying.
I'll take you at your word that it was not your intention to be offensive. If I were communicating in a language that is not my native tongue, I would hope that someone would point out to me that I might be being misunderstood, too.
As far as the wording of the rules, you would have to complain to HN about that if you take issue with it.
Op is making a claim about being a software engineer without having the necessary baseline of skills discussed. I have proposed two possible reasons, self-thought programmer who didn't get to the bottom of things, or just went through a really poor university.
You're making a whole lot of assumptions there without being " thoughtful and substantive". So I invite you to a bit of self-reflection and let this conversation be.
