I've always read that it's because many light novels started online, and the way they were listed meant you needed the title to really grab folk's attention.
(I actually really like this particular anime; the animation is often iffy but art and story really appeal to me!)
That episode really bothered me -- decades before I realized I was trans it was my least favorite episode of the entire run. It just came off as too mean spirited, and relied too heavily on the man-in-a-dress "joke".