This sort of system just encourages more meta debates about what is and isn't on the front page and why. Most of them are repetitive and boring. This is analogous to the 'receipts for downvotes' perennial - if you think about what it would mean in practice, it's not hard to see the result would be a crappier site.
That doesn't fix the boringness problem and people have meta-discussions about HN on other forums all the time so there's that for those who are into that sort of thing.
