Ha! But you could also put it like this: “we can’t risk the chainsaw cutting off someone’s finger so we better replace the metal chain/blades/whatever with rubber”.
I mean, the real question is how to trade off the chainsaw’s power and its safety. Similarly with commitment devices: if we make it impossible for Beeminder to ever charge you for a non-akrasia-related reason then, arguably/possibly, that’s a slippery slope to Beeminder being toothless. There ends up always being an excuse for why any given derailment wasn’t legit.
This is a thing that varies a lot from person to person though. I do personally love the kind of hardcore attitude of “a commitment’s a commitment” and think it’s a good default. But I also agree that with some thought – like Nicky’s doing in this thread – you may be able to get closer to the best of both worlds. It’s interesting because I know we have some people who err way too far in one direction and others who err way too far in the other direction.
PS: How I put this in a recent daily beemail:
You may not want to commit to Currently Fun Thing because what if it doesn’t stay fun? But it’s always at most a week from changing your mind to being off the hook so if it’s otherwise valuable then that may be a fine and fair price to pay. Or of course pay the literal price, which also might be a fine and fair price to pay to change your mind about a previously valuable commitment.