Meta: what's the historical reason HN titles their obituary articles this way? Just a name, "has died" (a very kurt but passive line, many articles typically say "passed away", or at least "dead at X age"), no clarification of the person like any news article would do.

I don't think this is in any rules I read, so probably faster to ask than deep dive through 15 years+ of history.

I'm not convinced it's a good thing, anyway (beyond maybe stripping out controversial descriptions, which is more likely to be a problem for Kissinger than MacGowan)

I'm sure there are plenty of HNers who don't instantly recognise the name who would be much better placed to decide whether the article interested then if the title was in its original form.