| Alsee added a comment. |
I'm not familiar with all of the API issues, but if this helps:
The magicword Shortdesc: is actually a description of the article. The Wikidata label is a description of the Wikidata item. Someone thought Wikidata labels could conveniently be re-used as if they were an article description. But they aren't article descriptions.
For example, some Wikipedia languages have an article on "Hatmaking", other languages may have an article on "Hatmakers". They are all linked to the same Wikidata item, and it's pretty much random whether the Wikidata item is "Hatmaker" or "Hatmaking". Another example, Wikidata has items for "Seesaw" and "swing". However the Czech language has a single word that covers both, and Czech Wikipedia has a single article that covers both. (The Czech article is linked to one of those two Wikidata items at random, because of a Wikidata design flaw that can't handle the correct dual-linkage.)
So aside from the issue that the EnWiki community wants local control of what is functionally EnWiki content, the Wikidata label is not, and never was, a description of an article.
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