I totally get where you're coming from, but the full sentence is:
> Otherwise [outside a set of very specific circumstances], please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.
I'm not sure what would count as "specific circumstances". One could argue though that the original title was "editorialized", since GitLab has an incentive to soften the blow of the news, especially since the original title doesn't tell much about the news itself (what is the important update)?
Well, I guess that would be open to interpretation - I don't get from the sentence that the "very specific circumstances" refer exclusively to the paragraphs above. Otherwise, they would have written "outside the circumstances mentioned above" or omitted the brackets entirely, IMO.
I believe they phrased it this way so some discretion can be exercised if the original title doesn't give the full context. Another example is the recent Tesla story - original title is "Q3 2019 Update", story title is "Tesla Q3 Financial Results". The HN story for when MS bought GitHub is "Microsoft acquires GitHub", while original title was "Microsoft + GitHub = Empowering Developers".
If there wasn't such a leeway, most acquisition stories would be titled "Our incredible journey".
> Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.