That's not how coding works. Especially in something as sensitive as a blockchain.
You don't just try something and see if it breaks things. You write a test for it and if you have a suspicion about a bug, you'll let those people know, who are responsible and if you can fix it yourself - you'll do that.
Is there a live testnet for the STEEM blockchain? I agree that would be a more conservative place to try an operation like this. However, I'm a bit astonished that something as simple as prohibiting a negative power down has not been patched in 2 years. Then again, until it happened, it could just seem absurd.
Yes, STEEM has of course a testnet.
https://developers.steem.io/testnet/ https://testnet.steem.vc/
That is strange, then, that the operation wasn't tried there first. Perhaps there was some malicious intent after all.
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Relevant
Hehe.
But I'm pretty sure nearly every coder had a time where they just wanted to finish an update/feature.
Just. One. Last. Commit ...