In the clickbait era, I've also noticed everything amped to 11. One no longer "disagrees", one "slams". One no longer "loses", one "gets destroyed", etc.
I think there's a similar effect in play to 1984's "Newspeak". While Newspeak was designed to restrict freedom of expression and quell any nascent revolutionary feeling, Headlinese seems to lend itself perfectly to these intensely polarised feelings. I don't think it's a new thing though, it's certainly been employed by the British press for as long as I can remember.
And the constraint does lend itself to some fun creativity in the sports pages at least, see "Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious"[1] and "Young Boys Wankdorf erection relief"[2] for example.
Not a fan.