Yes, at least in getting from the application to the interview phase. What matters is not so much the karma score as whether we recognise the username as someone who often submits good links or makes intelligent comments.
The HN userbase is extremely unique in the richness of experience of its users. There are many successful people here in a wide range of areas on all things Internet.<p>Identifying the value from the nonsense however may take a bit of effort for some people. I do believe that this is still an excellent resource for viable opinions.