It does. What I mean by 'the application' is the backend / web app. To put it another way, a better design allows no application code to read the hash from st

It does. What I mean by 'the application' is the backend / web app. To put it another way, a better design allows no application code to read the hash from storage; the application can only ask the storage or security service to compare a supplied value for correctness. Fail enough times in rapid succession and the security service locks the account for a few minutes, preventing any comparisons during that period. Opening the door to testing the hash itself outside of these constraints is the weakness I am suggesting. Also thanks for the downvote.