This. To space folks, that is plummeting. It's enough of a difference, and a surprise, to have a significant effect on business models.
To me at least, plummet signals it's a matter of seconds or, perhaps from great altitude, minutes until it hits the bottom. So to me, and that's knowing a thing or two about space, this title is just clickbait and not a good description of the phenomenon observed even for a techy public like HN.
This article wasn't written for HN. It was written for the general audience that peruses Space.com. Because someone found it interesting and posted to HN is pretty much the only reason it is on HN. Space.com didn't submit it in hopes of gaining attention by a hypercritical audience.
Yes, I agree it is click bait. I'm just playing devil's advocate to some of your weaker arguments.
Yes, and landing is not one of those situations. To describe a plane as "plummeting" requires that it crash (or recover and stay airborne) rather than landing.
Or in other words, Aachen's claim that "we also don't say that airplanes plummet when landing" was correct in every particular.