I read it as somebody who knows they're sufficiently bad at bash to not be safe with it admitting that and doing something more sensible for their specific cont

I read it as somebody who knows they're sufficiently bad at bash to not be safe with it admitting that and doing something more sensible for their specific context. NB: When I say "sufficiently bad at bash" I think of myself first. Just because I know about 'set -e' and friends doesn't mean I trust myself to get it right nor do I believe anybody else should trust me to either.