The problem with this is the idea that this kind of software would ideally be written or specified with "if" statements. I'm not sure about the argument that A

The problem with this is the idea that this kind of software would ideally be written or specified with "if" statements. I'm not sure about the argument that AOA values of more that 25° constitute an error, but a more plausible design would be a module that monitors the signal from the AOA sensor and classifies it into various advisory categories. That module could get complex internally but still have a clean interface, providing data of the form (AOA, Advice) where "Advice" would be an indication of the modules' conclusion or recommended action. Rejecting ridiculous data is potentially a very subtle ML problem. To suggest that it should be taken care of in such a simplistic ad hoc way really doesn't do justice to the problem.