I have no actual evidence but it’s something I’ve observed anecdotally too. I strongly suspect it’s the reality of online journalism: analytics tells you exactly what headline format gets the biggest audience and everyone has discovered it’s this one.

I’m personally a little less convinced that it’s a disservice: in this instance it is an accurate summary of the article, as well as explaining the reasons why you might be interested to read it. The headline could be “The story of some parents creating an app for their school” but that’s actually less descriptive as well as less exciting. I don’t think it’s automatically better.