You assume that systems tend to be well-designed and the basic assumptions it makes are justifiable, and that the systems faithfully implement that design and those assumptions.

It sounds like the author found a bunch of bugs in the process of making a simple code change. That happens pretty frequently, and doesn't mean that the author should let the priests of the cathedral deal with this UNIX thing that is too complicated for the laity to hack on. It just means there is no priesthood.