In article ,
"Stephen J. Herschkorn" wrote:

The standard is not peculiar to those of us who are bemoaning the bug
here. It is as universal as spelling rules.

Repetition doesn't make it so...

Nor is what you'd write by hand fundamentally relevant to using a
spreadsheet, either. You didn't learn to add numbers using =SUM(A1:A10)
in grade school.

The only individuals claiming this to be an ambiguity appear to be
computer professionals exclusively.

Not me. I was trained as a chemist.

There are thousands of end users of this product who are not
programmers, nor should one need to be to use a spreadsheet.

Absolutely correct. OTOH, they should be able to verify that they know
how to use *any* tool before they rely on it.

Nor should they be expected to comb the documentation to discover
this peculiar "feature."

What documentation does one need to enter =-5^2 into a cell to verify
(or in this case, refute) one's assumption?!?

This is a very flawed design.

Perhaps (I could use it either way, but then I do check the
documentation before I rely on the result), but it's been in existence
for 20 years now. That makes it a *standard* for spreadsheets. It's not
going to change.