[dspillett]

If the alarm works. And it actioned not just snoozed too much or just dismissed entirely.

Defence in depth is a good idea: proper alarms, and a secondary measure in case they don't have the intended effect.

[pixl97]

Alarms are great, but when something goes wrong SSDs can fill up amazingly fast!

[n4r9]

Surely there are pitfalls either way. A ballast file can be deleted too readily, or someone could forget to re-add it.

[dspillett]

Yep. That is why doing both can be beneficial. Alerts are more proactive if acted upon, but often too easy to ignore meaning ballast is more fail-safe in that respect.