Good point. As of today, I don't see a way that the delta would be over 9 million if it wasn't crossing the gap without another 9million posts or another gap, but might as well future-proof it ... and just because I don't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

My reply was a rather off-the-cuff, first-level approximation of how I thought I might solve it, rather than a fully fleshed-out solution, with implications and edge cases considered. Also, I also realized that my reply could have come across as "why haven't you come up with this", which isn't what I intended; rather, I meant something more like "but at least the fix shouldn't be too difficult to come up with (famous last words), something like /this/".