It's always better to be cautious when an RDBMS is involved. Jumping in to "fix" some coder's problem without first doing a lot of sanity checking could cause immense chaos.

Who owns the next step is debatable. I'm guessing that other coders have coped with the existing database behavior. If true, push back on the coder to gain concensus with his peers. That puts the ball in his court, giving him the opportunity to shelve the issue.