Hmm interesting.
Coming from production in Nuke, viewing the write node is kinda standard way to view your comp just before you render it, as the Nuke write node does not write a file by just viewing it.
Having such an easy way to mistakenly overwrite your production frames (even just accidentally selecting it and hitting a number on your keyboard can fully overwrite a frame with no warning), is pretty scary for projects with lots of artists and long hours.
I guess to counter your point, from a production point of view, there is no reason to ever have a write node just write a file and possibly overwrite files that the artist wished to keep, without having the artist decide to render out the file, by hitting the “Render” button on the write node.
Thanks for your input and suggested work-arounds.