Apart from using inline code spans for highlighting actual code, you could use them to avoid text is parsed differently, e.g. to avoid that <body> is parsed as HTML, and rendered as . (It is not actually rendered because it is stripped out.) That is also true for text that in Markdown would be rendered in a particular way, such as *example* that without inline code spans would be rendered as example.
In the other cases, inline code spans should not be used to highlight plain words; for that there is already bold, and italic styles, which can be easily obtained using Markdown.
If the suggested edit is limited to that, it should be rejected; if the suggested edit is not just that, it should be improved to remove the inline code spans where it has been inappropriately used.
Even in the case inline code spans would be acceptable for highlighting words, not highlighting those words is also acceptable. The change would be a change of style, equivalent of changing the style using to quote phrases from the American style to the British style, such as in the following sentences.
She said "I am late," and closed the door.
She said "I am late", and closed the door.
As such, the suggested edit should be rejected because would be changing the style from an acceptable one to an acceptable one, without making the text clearer.