Some MIPS relocations used to access GOT entries are able to manipulate 16-bit index. The other ones like R_MIPS_CALL_HI16/LO16 can handle 32-bit indexes. 16-bit relocations are generated by default. The 32-bit relocations are generated by -mxgot flag passed to compiler. Usually these relocation are not mixed in the same code but files like crt*.o contain 16-bit relocations so even if all "user's" code compiled with -mxgot flag a few 16-bit relocations might come to the linking phase.
Now LLD does not differentiate local GOT entries accessed via a 16-bit and 32-bit indexes. That might lead to relocation's overflow if 16-bit entries are allocated to far from the beginning of the GOT.
The patch introduces new "part" of MIPS GOT dedicated to the local GOT entries accessed by 32-bit relocations. That allows to put local GOT entries accessed via a 16-bit index first and escape relocation's overflow.