Good point, but interpreted that way, isn't it still a whole lot of claims by a board member, of what they and other board members were thinking, claims about t

Good point, but interpreted that way, isn't it still a whole lot of claims by a board member, of what they and other board members were thinking, claims about their perceptions of alleged facts, and claims about their reasons for doing what they did? (People don't always tell the truth about such things.) Although an individual reader's gut and other information might conceivably lead one to take all those claims at face value, I don't think it meets a journalism standard of evidence for "reveals" in a headline. IIUC, headlines and soundbites have a lot of influence on our understanding of the world.