I know there’s probably a good reason for this, but I find that in these times, it can be re-analyzed:
Community Building looks good! But Community Building > Praise not so much.
In the age of AI and Social Media, users want simple and direct links to what they are looking for.
The excess information for a subcategory is not technically necessary, and in that case, it will be shown when entering it from the top navigation bar that Discourse keeps in almost all its places.
I understand that it would be productive to simplify this UX detail and that subcategories look simply linked like categories, without extending the space they occupy and without offering more information than the direct link does.
Opinions and comments are always welcome, as workarounds. But I think this could be good to have for everyone.