I've been using https://news.ycombinator.com/active a lot more the last year, because so many important discussions (related to tech, but including politics or prominent figures like Musk) gets pushed out from the front page quickly. I don't think it's moderators doing it, but mass-flagging by users, (or perhaps some automagic if the discussion is too intense like num comments or downvotes). Of course, it might be the will of the community to flag these, but it does feel a bit abused in the way certain topics gets killed quickly.
I just found out about this recently and like this page a lot. Dang has a hard job to balance this. I think newcomers might be more comfortable with the frontpage and if you end up learning about the other pages you can find more controversial discussions. Can't be mad about the moderation hiding these by default. Although I think CSAM-Bad should not be controversial.