user_page_title_alter() and user_page_title_pattern_alter() fail to trigger due to call to menu_get_object()

Setting a custom pattern for User Profile doesn't work for me because the calls to menu_get_object() from user_page_title_alter() and user_page_title_pattern_alter() fail. They fail (return NULL) because the following check in menu_get_object() fails:

$router_item['load_functions'][$position] == $type .'_load'

because the load function is user_uid_optional_load(), not user_load(). And this is in core, specified in user.module:

  $items['user/%user_uid_optional'] = array(
    'title' => 'My account',
    'title callback' => 'user_page_title',
    'title arguments' => array(1),
    'page callback' => 'user_view',
    'page arguments' => array(1),
    'access callback' => 'user_view_access',
    'access arguments' => array(1),
    'parent' => '',
    'file' => 'user.pages.inc',
  );

Happy to try for a patch if provided a little direction.