The thing is that even if the original title is what "the author intended" on a blog where (a) it will usually be accompanied by some or all of the text and (b) context about who the author is is evident from the rest of the site, in my opinion many of them are essentially meaningless out of context - anecdotally, especially for more personal posts where a descriptive title or anything that seems like SEO might seem too formal. When posts are modified to these titles on the HN front page, readers are left to click either due to domain recognition (which isn't always there) or mere curiosity, without a clue what they'll find at the link. This is unfair, since the post may be highly interesting yet has to compete with many other posts with better titles. Not that big a deal, but when you're actively going out reverting titles of popular posts, IMHO, it would be better to add some basic context if easily available.
