The point is not to save you a click in all circumstances, but to save a needless click due to frustration/curiosity.
I know HN likes to keep the original title if at all possible, but pretty much every clickbait title could be profitably replaced by a clever submitter:
"FCC names Jonathan Mayer new chief technologist for enforcement"
The only other clickbait title I see right now is courtesy the Washington Post:
"This might be the most controversial theory for what’s behind the rise of ISIS"
which would be better as:
"Piketty says inequality drives terrorism"
although that doesn't quite replace reading the article, it's just a lot better than what was there.