KDE is looking to move our software changelogs into AppData; see https://phabricator.kde.org/T10972. In discussions, it turns out that there is only one blocker. Allow me to explain:

Because the changelog and translations are stored in the AppData.xml file, and the AppData.xml file is inside the source tarball, this means that all translations need to be committed by the day the tarball is created. Our team of translators is small, and we don't have the resources to ensure that 100% of English strings are translated into all languages on the day the source tarball is created. It's not feasible to re-spin new tarballs after release because it would confuse and annoy packagers and users.

We would like to request the ability to point the AppData.xml to an external URL that would host the text of the changelogs. That way we could continue to add translations over time without needing to re-spin tarballs or work our small team of translators to death by dumping a huge amount of work on them.

In principle, the above applies to all translatable strings in the file, but we need this feature most for the per-release changelogs.

KDE is highly motivated to move to using AppStream for this information, but the described issue is currently a blocker for us. I can provide more information and details if needed, so please don't hesitate to reach out if anything's unclear!