Right, my point was just that there's no such thing as a "mostly works" consensus algorithm. By definition these algorithms are intended for systems that can't

Right, my point was just that there's no such thing as a "mostly works" consensus algorithm. By definition these algorithms are intended for systems that can't tolerate failure. If you feel confident you've built a complex algorithm like this correctly on the first try you probably haven't. Hubris and distributed systems just don't mix. Verifying correctness to back up our empirical claims is often the hardest and most overlooked part of software engineering.