RubyGems.org backfilled older releases with `created_at` fields, so theoretically you could still do the cooldown with very old gems (though I don't know why you would). It's only private / alternative gem servers that may not provide `created_at` fields.
This absolutely happened and is not speculation. I can't find the emails from the individuals that emailed me, but I did find my email to the board of directors asking that the website language be changed because people had pinged me thinking I would be getting money, or that the money would go to fund rubygems.org.
At the time I'd sent the email I was unaware Ruby Together was on HN front page (and that's why people were pinging me)
As I said in my blog post, it imports both and combines them in the UI. Also as I said in my blog post, I switched to shooting only in raw, and it still exhibited file corruption.
I ran both files through xxd then diffed them. I've literally changed every piece of hardware (at no small cost). "premature to immediately blame Apple" seems a bit off.