Re: summary possible errors in reading Texinfo manual

[Karl Berry]

    was invented in around 1976,

It was later than that -- 1984-86, based on "Bolio". (See History
section.) rms developed Texinfo soon after starting to (re)write GNU
Emacs, GDB, and the other initial GNU programs.

    mouses didn't exist to click on links 

I don't see that it had or has anything much to do with GUIs. The mouse
remains irrelevant today in standalone info and emacs in terminal mode.

    advantage is that it can make the navigation bar shorter and less
    likely to wrap across the screen.

Yes.  There are cases where it is rational for the node name (mostly
used and seen online) to be different from the section name (mostly used
and seen in PDF). Although many such differences are IMHO useless (seems
like they are different for the sake of being different), that is not
always so.

For example, in the Texinfo manual, in relatively recent times, even I
(one of the strongest proponents of node=section) chose to make some
names different:

Node: HTML Xref Configuration
22.4.6 HTML Cross-reference Configuration: 'htmlxref.cnf'

It just seemed too verbose and useless to me to write the whole thing
out in the node name, yet the information could be usefully present in
the section name. There are a number of cases (in various manuals) where
the section name is "<nodename>: <extra info>", if you know what I mean.

Decades ago I suggested to rms that the node name default to the section
name (or conversely). He considered and rejected the idea, saying that
authors should think carefully about the two names and their respective
contexts. I disagreed with him then and I disagree with him now, but
he's the boss.  --karl