He simply should've followed the HN guidelines (http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and linked to the article and stuck to the original title.

If I may be pedantic for a moment, the HN guidelines only warn against "gratuitous editorial spin." I don't feel the changes were gratuitous at all because (if you look at the last sentence in the blog post) my title is clearly the point Mr. Sayrer is trying to make.

The changes were gratuitous. That's why the author didn't directly say "You're cheating".

He wanted a direct answer while at the same time giving them the benefit of the doubt.

But whatever, your mind is made up.

The problem is the analysis to prove they are cheating is faulty. See my other post at: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1914541

Note, I'm not saying they're NOT cheating. I'm just saying that no one has yet provided strong evidence that they are.