I think OP is suggesting that “just metadata” is a sensationalist title, because to a lay person it suggests that decisions predicated on metadata are uninformed compared to decisions predicated on “data,” even though this isn’t necessarily true.
If the title were “We kill people based on data,” then the knee jerk response might be “… obviously.”
the way agencies like the CIA use the term metadata, it is very much inferior to full "data". metadata is just the record of the time, date, parties,... of a phone call, without the voice record of the call. the latter would arguably make for a much better source of information (because you'd know what was actually said, could match the voices,...).
