We encountered the same issue, but it seems to be only for projects at user/organization level. What we do to work around this is to create a new repository used solely for projects.
By doing so, you can create and put the issues in the project board, and apply labels to the issue (which does show up in the project board). The long details can be put in the issue description, and it can be linked to other repositories nicely as well. The trick really seems to be to not use user/organization project, but (dedicated) repository project.
I wish they documented this better or improve it somehow, but hey! I guess they were working on the beta issues board/table which is also pretty sweet!
By doing so, you can create and put the issues in the project board, and apply labels to the issue (which does show up in the project board). The long details can be put in the issue description, and it can be linked to other repositories nicely as well. The trick really seems to be to not use user/organization project, but (dedicated) repository project.
I wish they documented this better or improve it somehow, but hey! I guess they were working on the beta issues board/table which is also pretty sweet!