The error is coming from IIS. There are several additional layers which could go down inc. CGI, Application Pool(s), Database(s), parts of the LAN (interconnecting different servers/services), or anything else the ASP.NET site relies upon (e.g. handle depletion, disk space, etc).

In IIS this is a "last resort" error when even the custom error handler cannot respond.

The error message could represent defective hardware. If we did our job right, that's about all it would ever indicate. There's few sane actions one could take in an exception handler to remediate the problem. I will agree that a better overall system design could detect this problem and rotate the defective nodes, though.

But in this case for all we know it could be a software defect from which there is no recovery. IMO it's bad to overdesign recovery mechanisms that just end up masking design errors. Clever staged rollouts of changes are good ways to mitigate the impact of a new regression.

Why is it that people love to use the word "disingenuous" so much around here? I almost never see it used correctly.

If someone accused me in person of being "disingenuous" during an honest conversation, I would find it pretty rude.