freebsd-update fetch install is part of the normal upgrade process If the man page and literally every other piece of documentation about upgrading is correct:

freebsd-update fetch install is part of the normal upgrade process If the man page and literally every other piece of documentation about upgrading is correct: no, no it's not. If the intent of freebsd-update were only to allow migration from the latest patch level, it would fail instead of corrupting its state, no? The only caveat provided by the freebsd-update man page is the admonishment to read the release notes for special instructions, yet the release notes completely fail to mention this footgun. Or is your assertion that intuition should take the place of documentation?