Debugging is hard, sometimes very hard. Writing a fix on a familiar code base is comparatively trivial, especially having a working version of the prior fix as the guide. Writing the second version is always easier.

Saying that it’s a simple fix shows one doesn’t understanding the amount of work go into bug fixings in software development.

In this case Michael even acknowledged that he could not reproduce it initially but only later had it nailed down. This speaks volume about the amount of work OP put into debugging and fixing the problem. Robbing him of his work is just not right.