Hang on. IANAL, but surely if there’s a license file, that is precisely what applies? A license expression is only ever an abbreviation of the intent (or in the absence of a license file, a reference to a standard set of terms). Having a GPL2 license file and a license expression that says something that’s not in that file doesn’t “eliminate confusion” - what it actually does is add questions over which is considered authoritative. And that’s the point when you need a lawyer, and you need to have a conversation with the project author.
This sort of subtlety is precisely what we don’t want the standards to get sucked into - we’re providing a place where a project can record some data if they want, not offering any sort of legal framework or proforma for how to license your project.