My best guess is their board/investors forced them to.

In this theory, without evidence just like their db claims, they were looking for external evidence to shut it all down or force replacement of key personnel.. And Aphyr understood the assignment.

I'd assume that no-one who works there really knows anything about databases; they may genuinely have thought that it worked. A lot of super-AI-pilled people seem to be deep into this "expertise doesn't matter any more" belief system.

No doubt because the LLM said it was ready to pass Jepsen.

it is surprising even for vibe coded database.

Imagine bringing in any outside testing before your WHERE implementation works.