The Australian Way!
Why would ANYONE here be surprised by the way things have panned out? This is the Australian way, pedantry; Australia is a pedantic country, we take things to the nth degree, we do not allow common sense and I think that is because of our nature. Everything has to be very prescriptive because if something goes wrong it will be argued "well, the rules don't disallow that...." and that will be carried as a just defence and out comes a rewriting of the rules, we are very lawyerly! Notice when our pollies rip off their allowances and when caught the catchcry response is that the rules aren't clear enough "The rules don't say I can't fly to my mates party at taxpayers expense after only attending a "party meeting" in the same city for all of 5 minutes".
Intent never gets an airing, the response is always "but, that isn't what it says!". People look for workarounds and the response is more and more rule writing.
Lawyers love this approach, with a prescriptive approach you can find a way around whatever is in your way.