How come I get internal server error even with try catch for get_the_title in functions.php?

You can avoid hard coded title tag in your theme template. Just use theme support.

add_theme_support('title-tag');

OR, If you want to use title tag then you can do something like this.

<title><?php wp_title('|', true, 'right');?></title>

You can then apply filter as

/**
 * Filters wp_title to print a neat <title> tag based on what is being viewed.
 *
 * @param string $title Default title text for current view.
 * @param string $sep   Optional separator.
 * @return string The filtered title.
 */
function wpdocs_theme_name_wp_title( $title, $sep ) {
    if ( is_feed() ) {
        return $title;
    }

    global $page, $paged;

    // Add the blog name
    $title .= get_bloginfo( 'name', 'display' );

    // Add the blog description for the home/front page.
    $site_description = get_bloginfo( 'description', 'display' );
    if ( $site_description && ( is_home() || is_front_page() ) ) {
        $title .= " $sep $site_description";
    }

    // Add a page number if necessary:
    if ( ( $paged >= 2 || $page >= 2 ) && ! is_404() ) {
        $title .= " $sep " . sprintf( __( 'Page %s', '_s' ), max( $paged, $page ) );
    }
    return $title;
}
add_filter( 'wp_title', 'wpdocs_theme_name_wp_title', 10, 2 );

See wp_title()

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