Windows with NTFS will also break in mysterious ways when the system disk is full.
There was a time when OSs could deal with the system disk being full quite well. And not so long ago.
There was a time when OSs could deal with the system disk being full quite well. And not so long ago.
I do not know how to fix it without reinstalling
I'm always amazed at how the file system survives just fine, but the machine doesn't even crash!
I'm not sure where you got your experience from.
My experience is that Windows and many of its programs will become very unstable with 0 b on the system drive. And about 3 times out of maybe 50, the system also became unbootable. I’ve learned to do whatever I can to free up space before restarting for stability.
The last time I’d regularly run out of space on Win was around Windows 98 times. I never had a problem then. Now in Windows 11 times, it’s a real headache.
Not sure how you’re so lucky.
Still, whatever this APFS bug is, the conditions to trigger it are more specific than just filling up the disk.