Yes, often overwhelmingly so. For example, take the "max range" configs in RotaryCraft. They are there to mitigate the performance impact of extreme-range effects from things like the floodlight, light bridge, sonic borer, item vacuum, and bait box; the mob limits on the spawner controller are there for similar reasons. Number of people I saw tweaking them as per server capabilities? Zero. Number of people setting them to zero to effectively disable the machine? More than fifteen each.
Because of the importance of those options, I just added a mandatory minimum - usually 64 - to those options; a non-scaleable, option, however, would have been removed.
That is a good example. They were using those configs as a way to disable items even though that wasn't the purpose of those configs. It's one thing for an admin to try to disable items they don't like for some reason, but this method resulted in the items being craftable, but useless. Wasting the time, effort and resources of those who crafted the items is definitely a terrible abuse of a config. Of course, your new minimum setting fixed that problem, so the config option is still available for those who would use it properly, and it is much harder to abuse for those that would try. That is a good way to make a config. Might I ask
how exactly a config to remove the bedrock swords armor breaking ability would be abusive? By making it less overwhelmingly powerful? Even without that ability it is still a very good weapon. You could even compromise and implement a config like the above range-based ones, and merely allow players to
reduce the amount of damage the bedrock sword does to armor, instead of preventing the armor damage entirely.
Despite that example, I still find it hard to believe that there are more people who would try to abuse your configs, especially one for the bedrock sword, as opposed to using them for the right reason. For starters, if the player is changing a config for a single player world, then it would be hard to argue that they are screwing
themselves over, wouldn't it? So at the very least, all the single player personal config changes could only be for their own benefit. Then there are the "group of friends" type servers like you mentioned earlier. If they are all friends, then it seems unlikely that the admin would want to upset his friends if he wants to keep them. So for those cases, we can assume the majority of admins who made config changes wouldn't be abusing them to screw their friends over. Then there is the case of servers with a fair number of people who are strangers, or at the very least don't know each other very well. Abusing config options to screw people over is not a good way to keep people on a server. Thus, many avoid doing that.
Now when you take all that
logical reasoning into account, along with the people who maybe, just
maybe don't want to abuse the configs because they
don't like screwing people over, then it seems hard to imagine that the majority of people who change them are trying to abuse them. Plus, if you simply make configs in a way similar to the revised range-based ones, then it's a non-issue. The configs will be abuse-resistant, if not outright abuse-proof.
I do not know what kind of person would treat their friends in such a manner.
I do not believe you understood what I was saying. For starters, not everyone on a server is necessarily friends. Some players can come in and try to break/circumvent the rules to cause problems. If a player accidentally breaks a rule and causes trouble, this can make people upset. Particularly if something is lost or destroyed in such a way that it cannot be easily fixed. Usually people don't get too upset, but if enough is lost or it happens a bunch, then they can start to get angry. Config options can prevent certain problems from being physically possible, thus reducing accidental destruction and the need for as many rules.
Simple solution: spawn it back in. If you claim that that is cheating, how is that any different from spawning it in after a player's inventory data file being lost?
It is quite different. An inventory data file being lost would be the result of a glitch. The armor being destroyed would be the result of an intentional game mechanic and a direct (if accidental) player action. That said, most admins would just spawn the player a new suit of armor, which would be the right thing to do. Of course, some servers have stricter rules than others. Like even if you destroy something by accident, if it wasn't a glitch and just an unintended mod interaction then it won't be undone. Even if the player
is given new armor, several mods add very customizable armor. It could be difficult to prove, for example, what modules you have installed on your power armor. Even if the admin doesn't care whether you end up with more than you lost, that player may not want to get more than they lost because they feel it would be cheating, or less because it would be unfair. The problem being that they can't remember what modules they had.
Unintended interactions are always going to exist in modpacks, because no two items are coded the same way or do the same things. Any armor explicitly coded as indestructible should be so; any one sloppily done, probably not. My problem? No.
If we are going to start removing features because of unintended mod interactions, what about things like ore multiplication (some mods allow the ingots to be made back into ores)? Or custom 2-pass TileEntity renders (Optifine breaks)? Or mob farming (some mod may add an exploit)? Or any TileEntity (DartCraft force wrench/frames and world corruptions)? At this rate, you might as well play vanilla...and still not be rid of unintended behavior.
Might as well play vanilla? Lol. That's not any more of a valid argument than "might as well play creative". Different players like different degrees of balance. Some like to play hardcore with no exploits or "OP" mods. Some will let an exploit slide if the feature is fun enough, and will enjoy playing with powerful items even if they are "unbalanced". Ftb has a relatively loose balance, but they still avoid exploits like ingots into ores, don't have the gravity gun mod due to lightning causing mods and Twilight Forest's uncrafting table (also why they removed the portal gun from dungeon loot tables), and they also don't support optifine. Even if their balance is loose, they still seek to eliminate game-breaking exploits.
The ftb team makes heavy use of the available configs. While they sometimes remove features, they mostly just adjust values, choose one mod's ore generation over another, and such things. As I said, you could simply add a config to reduce the armor damaging effect of the bedrock sword, instead of removing it entirely. That way, that feature
couldn't be completely removed.
Whether you add such a config or not, you should still work to fix cross mod bugs and exploits. Like that Blood Magic example. Did they code their armor sloppily? I do not know. If it turns out your sword is the only thing that damages their armor, then I'd hardly call their code sloppy or blame them for the problem. Whether you solve the problem on your end or they solve it on theirs, you should still reach a solution for this bug, and any other cross mod exploits regarding your sword as you encounter them in the future.
A lot of the servers I play on are run from friends' houses. Often times I also build the pack, shouldn't I get a say in what goes on in the pack?
If you helped make the pack then yeah, of course. Especially if the admin is spending a negligible amount of money on the server, and players work together to solve technical issues. The less the admin puts into the maintenance of the server, and the more the players put into it, the more of a say players should have. Even if the admin pays more money and puts more time into maintaining it, I've already said that they should always consider their players feelings.