>"the way" does not feel correct here to me and should be removed, hopefully a native English speaker can tell us?

>"Clients MAY use the type to change how the messages are presented to the user" is what sounds ok to me


Either that or "Clients MAY use the type to change the way the messages are presented to the user".

It's the use of both "the way" and "how" that's the problem with the current wording.