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I've wondered the same myself. I suspect it might be to prevent abuse of some sort, such as changing the title, "Show your wife/GF with your car," to "Post up Fat Chicks," etc, well after the thread has started.
I've found if I've changed my mind about a thread title and nobody's responded, I'll just delete the thread and repost. If you do that after a response or two, of course you've lost those responses but sometimes those members will repost.
I once thought I changed the title after editing an original thread, only to find that all I changed was the title at the top of the post - not the title in the index.
I'm not sure the rationale behind it but if you shoot one of us a PM we can change it fairly easily. I suspect it helps others find threads they've participated in. If you started a thread with one title and it grows to 10 pages, then you change the title it makes it difficult for others to find that thread again just by browsing the threads. I do get what you're saying though.
... If you started a thread with one title and it grows to 10 pages, then you change the title it makes it difficult for others to find that thread again just by browsing the threads.
It probably also throws off the My Recent Topics system as well.