That's an interesting perspective because if I use America/New_York I would assume that it's subject to the laws of New York City. If I wanted a different DST regime I'd just use +4, +5, or a different city.
Using +4 or +5 explicitly instead of a time zone when DST is relevant is bad juju. Then your arithmetic can become silently wrong in subtle ways when it cross a DST boundary.
Ah I see, I didn't understand the original question properly. "Choose one side of DST or another" was meant for the time literal, not the TZ. That's my bad.
Using +4 or +5 explicitly instead of a time zone when DST is relevant is bad juju. Then your arithmetic can become silently wrong in subtle ways when it cross a DST boundary.