Stephen Colebourne wrote:
All values for the far past are misleading to some degree, "more misleading" is subjective.
Sure, but all the same it would be weird for a user who does not know that LMT means "approximate placeholder" to see a transition like this: Zone Europe/Paris 0:15:00 - LMT 1891 Mar 15 0:01 0:09:21 - PMT 1911 Mar 11 0:01 for France's institution of a standard time zone in 1891. That would appear to be a transition from a GMT-based time zone to a let's-thumb-our-nose-at-the-British time zone, which is not at all what happened. In contrast, the (non)-transition that's currently in the database feels closer to what actually happened. Yes, this is subjective, but the proposed change feels considerably more artificial and forced than what we've got.