Per https://musicbrainz.org/edit/118446983 and https://community.metabrainz.org/t/karaoke-performance-attribute-style-2096/582414 there is actually not consensus between the MusicBrainz team and the MusicBrainz community about what an instrumental recording of a work actually is.  PICARD-1840 was requested on the premise that everybody was editing in accordance with this:

"Instrumental" tracks are a complete recording of the work (excluding lyrics), intended to be listened to as-is - the track is re-arranged such that all the significant parts of the work, including vocal melody, are played on instruments.

A "karaoke" track is an incomplete recording of the work - the vocal melody is missing. Vocal harmonies and backing vocals may or may not be present.

Since this is not actually true, then Picard should not force the behavior of PICARD-1840 onto users automatically, and I would have never requested PICARD-1840 in the first place.

Instead, this behavior should be toggleable via an option so users can change it on demand.  The option could be called something like "Drop lyricist and lyrics language from instrumental recordings of works".  At present, it seems like this option should be enabled by default.