Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it was organic.
And annoying. Did you consider adding a filter to increase diversity?
You're digging yourself a deeper and deeper whole. In fact, it was the right number of front-page submissions for various reasons, #1 being that it is what people submitted and voted on. #2, it was a legitimately monumental news story not merely because a pillar of our industry passed away but because he was only halfway through his career. Finally, it would be difficult to overstate the impact Steve had on the PC and consumer electronics industries. And film industry. And really the world in general.
Responding to one of your other notions, I am actually pretty confident that the web would not be at nearly the stage it is today without Steve's contributions both in popularizing graphical computing and supplying a computer programmable by a mere mortal (TBL, in this case).