I had thought that, as long as the object in that location is valid (e.g. constructed with placement new and not since destructed, with the `char` as a pointer

I had thought that, as long as the object in that location is valid (e.g. constructed with placement new and not since destructed, with the `char` as a pointer to the storage), then accessing it through the `char` is valid -- but maybe that's only true for `void*` now that I think about it. Either way, fair enough, placement new probably hasn't happened (haven't read the rest of the code).