I'd argue that it is completely useless. They have the actual parser that runs in production and then a separate "test parser" that doesn't actually reflect reality? Why?
I read that they pushed a new configuration file, so possibly they don't consider that a "software update" and pushed it to everyone. Which is obviously insane. If I am publishing software, it doesn't matter if I've changed a .py file or a .yaml file. A change is a change and it's going to be tagged with a new version.
So how do people handle this in practice if the users table in this example has a ton of traffic? It might not ever succeed even with exponential backoff. It also seems strange that Postgres would need to lock the entire table just to add a new column.
I'm in a really similar position to you. I'm currently engineer #1 at a seed stage startup making $155k with 1.5% equity. But a year in I'm realizing I've built their entire product from scratch while they do sales and outreach. Obviously those things are important but I'm a leg of a tripod holding the whole thing up and yet I have a fraction of the equity they have. Makes no sense.
Oracle Park is kind of uniquely great, though. Amazing views and right next to public transportation. The more typical experience is something like Kauffman Stadium, where the only way to get there is by car and there is nothing to look at other than the game itself.
Did they just now discover abstract base classes?