Objectively, there’s a recent push to try and refer to suicide as if it’s an illness instead of a deliberate act. This is because when thinking of suicide, thinking is often impaired due to comorbid illnesses. Therefor, people who die of suicide are not fully aware of their actions, agency or the consequences.

Subjectively, I can’t speak for OP but personally I find this a difficult one. I think for many people, suicide is an illness. However, there’s also something that in Dutch we call “completed life”. The idea that you feel like your life is complete and continuing to live doesn’t interest you. This is often used in the context of people who are chronically ill or the elderly. Referring to those people as “dying of suicide” also isn’t correct, but in these cases I doubt it will reach mainstream media.

Not op, but I agree with him too: it sounds off for no good reason.

It's as if instead of saying "John walked to the park", the editor wrote "John was moved to the park by walking".

And I also find asinine the idea of stripping the sense of agency in someone's last moment, as if it were more respectful. Suicide is a sad, touchy subject no matter how the sentence is constructed anyway.

Disclaimer: I'm not a native English speaker.

Sure, I'll try

Objectively - no idea

Subjectively - a friend of mine killed himself ten days ago. It's a tragedy, I wish he hadn't done it but he did. It matters to me because I think this idea he was passively subjected to suicide is plainly wrong.