I don't think that there was any pressure to deeply formalize contrasts before this because even if you did, there would still be recourse to a human judge (not

I don't think that there was any pressure to deeply formalize contrasts before this because even if you did, there would still be recourse to a human judge (not just a compiler). If one party didn't like the strict reading they could sue. The question that's playing out right now is "is there human judge behind the code." If a set of humans (miners and developers) successfully overrule the code, this will seriously undermine the whole premise of this project.