Honest question: Why do people care so much about or like having the year in the title? In some situations I can see it being needed to prevent big confusions, but many times I see people put the year in the title when it doesn't really seem to matter. In this particular case for instance, I don't see why it would be needed.

Not the parent but the reason I like to see the year in the title in cases like this is because I've seen it previously. I looked at the title and thought, "I think I've read that before" but as it was here on HN which is mostly comprised of new content I thought it might be something new clicked through. If the year was in the title I would have immediately known I had read it before and not had to click through and read some of it to find out.