[Syonyk]

> I’m genuinely unsure what purpose anti-islanding actually serves.

I think it mostly prevents inverters from trying to destroy themselves feeding into a dead short, or creating weird instabilities - the grid segment is either up or down from the inverter's point of view. Any sane inverter will detect it's trying to feed a dead short and shut down. And if you're grid tied and your grid segment is down, it looks like a dead short.

It's a useful enough filter for people who understand power systems and power system work, because, as your linemen pointed out, if safety is a question, the workers simply create a bolted short across all the phases and neutral, and you're not simply not going to make that ring.

And, yes, migratory line workers are a thing. I don't get it, but relatively few people I've talked to out here (Idaho Power territory) actually work for Idaho Power - it's mostly migratory contract workers doing the power pole inspections and such.