[zonidjan]

Whether there's a bug in the underlying API code, or a bug in the web server, there's a risk that it "may or may not result in the standard response format you're expecting", and therefore... should be a 500 error.

Yes, using the wrong status codes is a problem, you're right, that's the entire point of the thread you're responding to.

[celticmusic]

that's flat out not true, it's a red herring.

I can't think of very many tech stacks where an error inside the API couldn't be trapped and responded with a standard json response.