The title is wrong, and is not the actual title of the paper. They discovered some new aspects of how regular mitochondria work, not a new kind of mitochondria.
My take: In mitochondria, there is a trade-off between making ATP and making the building blocks of proteins. Different mitochondria can specialize in doing one or the other.
Yep, that was also my takeaway. In addition, the population of mitochondria regulates the proportion of their specializations via fission and fusion among themselves.
I wonder if there are any disorders related to disregulation in the process.
Yes, there are many mitochondrial diseases related to defects in fission and fusion- it seems plausible that something like what you are suggesting is involved.
It sounds more like mitochondria can specialise their biochemistry depending on the needs of the cell.
I wonder if there are any disorders related to disregulation in the process.