What it does show is that people have an aversion to linking to redirects.
Indeed.
Lord knows why; that's what they're *there* for.
The main problem are double redirects; especially with titles that are under dispute, people prefer to link to the current version. This is perfectly reasonable. In any case, if we can choose an article title that is both more likely to be used in other articles and academically correct, I think it's obvious we should do it.
Regards,
Erik