The difference being that an SCM records the history of your project. It would certainly be possible to record this simply as a "forced overwrite" in the histor

The difference being that an SCM records the history of your project. It would certainly be possible to record this simply as a "forced overwrite" in the history. Which git sort-of does (reflog). And then, after it prevented you from shooting yourself into the foot, it gives you a loaded Howitzer pointed at your face. (git reflog expire/git prune/git gc) I love git dearly, but that's still a large flaw in its design. There is no reason to ever lose history.