I recall clickbait meaning "A way of describing what's behind a link, often inaccurately, so that you click on it". The completely non-controversial article seems to me to have a very hook-y headline which is exactly what the phrase refers to, at least to me. What does clickbait mean to you? Perhaps the meaning of the phrase has changed in different groups over time.

"Future of US-China Relations in Question After Death of Hollywood Director"

A literally true sentence which falsely implies a correlation between events.

Discussion of the 777-200's economic viability has nothing to do with the Dulles incident.

One sentence buried in an article that ledes with BIG SCARY ENGINE FAILURE.

It’s not a buried sentence. It’s a section heading in large font saying “ The 777-200 Problem Is Not Safety. It Is Economics.”

Then there’s a whole paragraph stating “The Boeing 777-200 is not an unsafe airplane. As far as I can tell, that is not the issue even after the incident over Dulles over the weekend.”

Then just in case the reader jumped to conclusions, the first sentence of the conclusion again says it’s safe.

You are explaining exactly why the headline is clickbait: The article does not support the conclusions implied by the headline.

> just in case the reader jumped to conclusions

The author is correcting a problem of his own creation. He has already misled the reader with his headline. He means for the reader to misunderstand... and click.