The term "Chapter Numbering" can be confusing since it refers to more than chapters. By default, "Chapter Numbering" uses the Heading paragraph styles, but other paragraph styles can also be included in "Chapter Numbering". Therefore, the name "Heading Numbering" wouldn't be much better. A better name might be "Section Numbering" but the term "Section" is used with a different meaning in LibreOffice Writer. For semantic purposes, the name "Division Numbering" might work better.
Can you count people on Earth who would looks for "division numbering" in help, or who would get the idea of such a menu item without reading help? I bet there are no more than a handful of those. -1.
The name was changed from Outline Numbering for bug 107573. I think we should not touch it again without very good reasons - and I got never confused whether this affects one or all chapters. Although "Divisions" would have been a good alternative back then.
I"m against too
I just learned the "Chapter Numbering" was changed to "Header Numbering" in version 7.6. That seems like a better name since the defaults are the Heading styles. People who are accustomed to using Chapter Numbering may be confused initially however.
(In reply to Don Matschull from comment #4) > People who are accustomed to using Chapter Numbering may be > confused initially however. That's why we have to be extra carefully in the first place with naming frequently used functions. The effort of renaming these attributes has hopefully enough benefit.