I believe this is an example of the old adage, "In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, however, there is."

In theory, the .zip spec is broken. In practice, it's the most reliable format for transferring a group of files. (And don't even get me started on JPEG, where iirc the file format wasn't even specified until after JPEG files had been popular for years.)

> I wonder if this same pattern can be applied to physical engineering disciplines- e.g. a structural engineer assessing a bridge and finding numerous faults in the design, despite traffic still using the bridge as normal...

I would be amazed if this weren't the case. I know I've encountered a few cases where mechanical engineers had cocked up the design but the resulting machine still managed to limp along and mostly perform its function.