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who's to say OP hasn't suffered or otherwise disadvantaged himself in upholding that moral?

Exactly. Plus, many people don't seem to understand the word "avoid" (it's come up in my own bubble recently). It doesn't mean "never." For example, a vegan would not say "I avoid eating meat." Furthermore, because someone successfully avoids now doesn't mean they went through a period of being unable to in order to earn the privilege to do so regularly.

Your exemple says much more: a short definition of veganism may use "never" and not "avoid", but a more complete, thoughtful definition encompass catches it:

> [...] which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable [...]

https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/definition-veganism

Ha, fair! It was an example off the top of my head and used based on my experience of how vegans talk, but yes, it's not a perfect example. But then if we're going down the rabbit hole then nothing is really absolute when it comes to what we should and shouldn't do. An actual software example would have been better:

"Avoid strong coupling between modules" v. "Never upload raw keys to a git server."

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