Great write up. Think I'll get the kids, sorry technicians to walk through this. Actually, I think I'll learn just as much but I have to keep a little bit aloof as MD!
Networks are tricky to run and networking is proper hard to do. TCP/UDP int al are pretty bloody good at shuffling data from A to B. I find it quite amusing when 20 years is considered old for a bug.
The Millenium bridge in London is a classic example of forgetting the basics - in this case resonance and being too clever for your own good. It's a rather cool design for a bridge - a sort of a suspension bridge but flatter and some funky longitudinal stuff. I'm a Civ Eng grad. It looked too flat to me from day one.
When people walk across a bridge and it starts to sway, they start to lock step and then resonance, where each step reinforces the last kicks in and more and more energy causes sway, shear and what have you forces. It gets worse and worse and then failure. Tacoma Narrows is another classic example of resonance but due to wind - that informed designs that don't fly!
Civ Eng is way, way older than IT and we are still learning. 24 years is nothing for a bug. However, IT is capable of looking inward and monitoring itself (unit tests, ping etc) in a way that Civ Eng can't (OK we have strain gauges and a few other tools).
The real difference between physical stuff and IT is that the Milli bridge rather obviously came close to failure visually and in a way that our other senses can perceive - it shook. The fix was to put hydraulic dampers along its length.
In IT, we often try to fix things by using magic or papering over flaws with "just so" stories. Sometimes we get the tools out and do the job properly and these boys and girls did just that: the job properly.