You are aware that this whole thing is theoretical since he set the field to bin (i.e. binary)? No database at all would have prevented this.
MySQL chose to coerce fields to fit the type. You don't like that choice, but other people find it useful. And MySQL gives you a choice to change it if you wish.
Judging by how popular and successful they are I think those chose correctly.
It's not theoretical. MySQL by default allowed type coercion out-of-box that is nonsensical. Sure, type coercion can be nice, but I'd prefer none over if it not failing and coercing bin('y') to 0.
Attributing their success to their choice of DB is insulting at best.
This article is a success story for MySQL because maciej is using MySQL.
This article is a failure story for maciej. MySQL may have chosen correctly for its own popularity (although that's debatable; this choice might not be a success factor) but it did not choose correctly for the success of its users, with this article being a clear example.
