I didn't like the way the first paragraph ended. It seemed excessively confrontational and made me not want to read the rest of the post.

My intention was not to appear confrontational. It actually seemed obvious when I began thinking about this problem that the order in which we check actions in step 1 shouldn't matter but that ended up being completely wrong. That was what I was trying to convey though I admit I might have done so in a clumsy manner.