Fixing an "explicit requirement" problem

I have an odd “Unsatisfiable requirements” problem:

(@v1.4) pkg> resolve
ERROR: Unsatisfiable requirements detected for package JuliaFormatter [98e50ef6]:
 JuliaFormatter [98e50ef6] log:
 ├─possible versions are: [0.1.0-0.1.5, 0.1.8-0.1.44, 0.2.0-0.2.4, 0.3.0-0.3.9, 0.4.0-0.4.3, 0.5.0-0.5.5, 0.6.0-0.6.6] or uninstalled
 ├─restricted to versions 0.4.3-0.6 by Atom [c52e3926], leaving only versions [0.4.3, 0.5.0-0.5.5, 0.6.0-0.6.6]
 │ └─Atom [c52e3926] log:
 │   ├─possible versions are: 0.12.16 or uninstalled
 │   └─Atom [c52e3926] is fixed to version 0.12.16
 └─restricted to versions 0.3.9 by an explicit requirement — no versions left

Usually I can get rid of “explicit” requirements by “remove” or “free”. But not in this case:

(@v1.4) pkg> remove JuliaFormatter
ERROR: The following package names could not be resolved:
 * JuliaFormatter (98e50ef6-434e-11e9-1051-2b60c6c9e899 in manifest but not in project)


(@v1.4) pkg> free JuliaFormatter
ERROR: expected package `JuliaFormatter [98e50ef6]` to be pinned, tracking a path, or tracking a repository

(@v1.4) pkg> status JuliaFormatter
ERROR: The following package names could not be resolved:
 * JuliaFormatter (98e50ef6-434e-11e9-1051-2b60c6c9e899 in manifest but not in project)

What is going on here?

I had Atom checked out for development, and managed to fix it by free Atom, which for some reason upgraded JuliaFormatter, then dev Atom.
It’s all still very mysterious to me.