E.15:9 - Consequences

Benefits. Small repairs stay small. Material changes expose their real dependent reach. Historical editions remain usable. Independent predecessor probes make large rewrites safer. Alternative search remains available where it can improve a real decision, and whole-pattern plain-language checking keeps ontological precision usable.

Costs and limits. Actual dependency and predecessor-function inspection require semantic judgment; a repository search cannot automate them completely. A Δ-2 or Δ-3 repair can still be expensive when many consumers truly depend on the changed premise. This pattern reduces redundant checking but cannot make a broad semantic change local by declaration.

Reopen the method when the four Delta-Classes no longer distinguish action-relevant change, when dependency-focused verification demonstrably misses affected uses, or when a lower-effort method provides equal or better preservation and decision quality.