Diagnosing Whether an Engagement Win Is Real or a Dark Pattern

A growth team reports that a change to the notification system increased weekly active sessions by 25%. The change made notifications fire more frequently and reframed several informational notifications ("your report is ready") as urgency-framed ones ("your report is about to expire — open now"), even for reports with no actual expiration.

1. Using the goal-metric mismatch concept from this subject, what is the actual underlying goal this "engagement" metric is supposed to be a proxy for, and does this change serve that goal?
2. Apply the two-question self-check from this subject to this specific change. What does each question reveal?
3. What would you recommend instead, if the real goal is for users to return to check work that's genuinely relevant to them?
4. How would you frame this concern to the growth team, who will see a 25% metric win as an unambiguous success?