Most proposed edits are pretty good and useful. However, every once in a while, a user makes an edit that generally improves the post, and preserves its intent, but changes things that do not need to be changed.

This isn't the best example, but it's current: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/47186

Changing "speed" to "deceleration" was completely correct.

Removing the flourish the answer's author included, such as "if you didn't suffocate on your way down", or "Really, really avoid water", is harmless, but it doesn't improve the post either.

It certainly doesn't change the meaning, but it just isn't needed. In a community wiki, such an edit would be completely appropriate, but in a non-wiki post, it needlessly removes the original author's equally harmless stylistic choices.

I can of course choose "reject and edit", and only incorporate the useful change (which has to be done either way). But that gives no feedback to the editor.

On a forum or in Wikipedia, I'd PM the user, but we don't have such a mechanic here (mods excepted). Communicating by commenting on the editor's answers sounds like a bypass of the system.

So, to what extent do we want to preserve the author's stylistic (rather than just functional) intent when editing?

What's the best thing to do to ask a user to edit a bit more gently, if the above is indeed overediting?

Most proposed edits are pretty good and useful. However, every once in a while, a user makes an edit that generally improves the post, and preserves its intent, but changes things that do not need to be changed.

This isn't the best example, but it's current: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/47186

Changing "speed" to "deceleration" is correct and improves the post.

Removing the flourish the answer's author included, such as "if you didn't suffocate on your way down", or "Really, really avoid water", is harmless, but it doesn't improve the post.

It certainly doesn't change the post's intent, but it just isn't needed. In a community wiki, such an edit would be appropriate, but in a non-wiki post, it needlessly removes the original author's equally harmless stylistic choices.

I can of course choose "reject and edit", and only incorporate the useful change (which has to be done either way). But that gives no feedback to the editor.

On a forum or in Wikipedia, I'd PM the user, but we don't have such a mechanic here, mods excepted. (Of course, on Wikipedia, such edits would be most appropriate, but I feel that SE is a different format.) Communicating by commenting on the editor's unrelated answers so they get a notification is unintended use of the system.

So, to what extent do we want to preserve the author's stylistic (rather than just functional) intent when editing?

What's the best thing to do to ask a user to edit a bit more gently, if the above is indeed overediting?