This is exactly correct. Information content in headlines is important, and clearly the moderator is incompetent at this role. You have to tell people why they should care, and the target page title probably is NOT good at that. In 99% of cases, the target page title will be a bad title on HN.

If the moderator disliked the direct appeal for aid in the original headline (I speculate, since he has not deigned to defend his editing), a proper title would be something along the lines of "Drupal developer has ALS, appeals for help". If Winborn is better known, you could go with "Drupal developer Winborn has ALS, appeals for help". If he's very widely known, you can assume most readers know who he is and go with "Aaron Winborn has ALS, appeals for help".

This conveys all the information needed for readers to evaluate the link, without being a direct emotional appeal.

I'd be happy to give the HN moderators a class in editing if they like. Editing is a learnable skill. Or, more likely, the HN moderators can continue fucking it up.