Kudos for recognizing your own mistake, owning up to it and ultimately correcting it. That is no minor feat.
But I do wonder if you're not extrapolating too much from this single case. Just because you made the mistake once doesn't necessarily mean it is very common per se.
The 16-235 brightness value issue I've heard about before and indeed, it's absurd to me as well. Especially when banding is such a huge issue on 8 bit video. We could use those values so much in the lower end.
That looks similar, but it's not the same phenomenon that is described in the article. The Dutch disease is based around currency appreciation making industry less competitive. Google is not a nation with its own currency (yet?).
But I do wonder if you're not extrapolating too much from this single case. Just because you made the mistake once doesn't necessarily mean it is very common per se.