pointer-events:none prevents title attribute

No, pointer-events: none is pretty encompassing in that any eventType that is associated with the mouse. You could wrap a <span> around the anchor and assign the title to that instead. It's ugly but valid.

Demo

a {
  pointer-events: none;
}

<span title='I am wrapped around this anchor'>
<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/" title="Some Sample Title">Sample Link</a>
</span>