Usually, in more structured professional environments every commit must link back to a change request, which them provides context. But yes, even minor changes

Usually, in more structured professional environments every commit must link back to a change request, which them provides context. But yes, even minor changes should have a descriptive commit message that summarises the change in order to make commit history useful. Now, when the code itself needs an explanation then that should be in the form of a comment next to the code itself.