The difference between the update check on the dashboard and the help page is that as you identified the help page includes

in Joomla 3 there is a warning if the installed version is not the current version and then a list of Announcements and Release notes going back through all major/minor/patch versions of the 3.x series.

I dont see a good reason for removing this link - or am I missing something

For Joomla 3 have a look at these two pages:
https://help.joomla.org/proxy/index.php?keyref=Help39:Joomla_Version_3_9_21/en&lang=en
https://help.joomla.org/proxy/index.php?keyref=Help39:Joomla_Version_3_9_20/en&lang=en
They are identical. So are all of the others through the the 3 series, hundreds of them. Except that of the current release which does not have the Warning message.
Have a look at this:
https://docs.joomla.org/Category:Version_3.9.22_FAQ
And compare it with this:
https://help.joomla.org/proxy/index.php?keyref=Category:Version_3.9.22_FAQ
The second version does not show the reported bug. And they are rare anyway.
If I try to fill out the form to create a FAQ I get taken here:
https://docs.joomla.org/Main_Page
Whatever we are trying to do we are doing it wrong!
It would be nice to have a page with abstracts of Release Announcements - but just one page. Separate issue?
And Bugs should be Bugs and not FAQS.

Everything you describe is accurate but the solution is not to remove the link here. The solution to all of them lies with the docs site

I am sorry, the label says: "Latest version check"
I agree with Cliff that it is a duplicate of the automated version check in Joomla itself. If you don't see the automated one, you will never find this one in the helpscreens.
I always wondered why I did always have to translate these new release-notes and did not do it the latest 3.9 release. I do see now where it is used and that, if you don't translate the latest version, the hole is in Englisch and not translated.
So this is not a good version check and we must remove it from J4. If there is a need for additional version information, we must add this and create something on the docs to support this.

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on e63d29f

Showing expected result

I have tested this item ? unsuccessfully on e63d29f

The link will be removed, so that works. But the div container with the class row lacks the spacing class mt-sm-3. The PR must therefore be corrected at this point.

yes, just modify line 21 in administrator/components/com_admin/tmpl/help/default.php
from
<div class="row">
to
<div class="row mt-sm-3">
but strangely that line is not marked as modified in the "files changed" tab...why?

I don't understand why the php72-unit test is failing. Have I done something wrong? I did start a local build accidentally and cancelled it before it went very far.

I restarted drone

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on d158b2d

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on d158b2d

The PR does what it claims to do, and all these links to release note pages are not very helpful anyway, and the version check we have elsewhere.

So for me it's ok to remove that page.

RTC