Highlight definitions displaying both settings and link

[Lifepillar]

Some highlight groups may have both settings and links. What does it depend from?

For instance, in the color scheme I am using (but I have noticed this in many others):

:hi StatusLineTerm
StatusLineTerm xxx term=bold,reverse cterm=bold ctermfg=0 ctermbg=121 gui=bold guifg=bg guibg=LightGreen
links to StatusLine

The color scheme links StatusLineTerm to StatusLine and the shown settings are those from StatusLine.
For other linked groups, however, only the link is shown, e.g.:

:hi QuickFixLine
QuickFixLine xxx links to Search

Why the difference?

I have noticed this because runtime/hitest.vim chokes at line 55 on highlight groups such as StatusLineTerm above, and spits a

line 55:
E348: No string under cursor

error. I have tried to contact its author a few days ago but I’ve got no answer so far.

Thanks,
Life.