Commit messages aren't usually scrutinized to this extent. If you looked at the last 1000 commits in cpython, you'd find quite a few with messages that could be seriously improved. We don't though because commits are immutable. You can revert them but we never downright replace them with different ones. Otherwise what's the point in me signing release tags?
At this point, I agree that everyone should forget about all this. The arguing is pointless, the PEP 8 text is very slightly better than it used to be (or even if you think it's very slightly worse, it's still not a big thing).
I also think that this situation is a bit different than the last 1000 commits. Many of those were probably less well phrased or less accurate than they could have been, but in ways that are not contentious in the overall community. A little while ago, I made a one sentence change to PEP 584. Brandt thought it was unnecessary, Guido thought it was worth accepting. It's not *really* important either way.
My exciting commit message was "PEP-0584: Specify order guarantee." But if I really wanted to, I probably could have snuck in a paragraph describing my feelings about Zorn's lemma, and inuititionistic set theory, and well-ordered cardinals. If anyone later noticed my comment, they'd think "David is a bit nuts." The message would kinda-sorta relate to the change, but not really; however generally in the Python community the tempers between the Brouwerists and Hilbertists have calmed down in these last 100 years (but lets note that Brouwer was Dutch!).
The dead increasingly dominate and strangle both the living and the
not-yet born. Vampiric capital and undead corporate persons abuse
the lives and control the thoughts of homo faber. Ideas, once born,
become abortifacients against new conceptions.