It was just an option in SMF. I'm not sure why you would ever want that.
Seriously jitspoe, want me to fix code for you? I have SMF in same version installed just by accident, want a patched version?
I know jitspoe that "something went wrong" happened for you, but I believe it's not reason to close door for people. This is case for everything. Look this way: If you pay people that do something for you, they can screw up, and you paid them. Does that mean you don't let anyone drive car for you (he can kill you), fix your car (he can screw up)? No, you depend on many people. It's pretty much same here: If you let correct people on correct position, they won't screw up, and you can always restore from backup. You won't even pay them. Eventually you will find good people, of course if you change your mind on this.
Also: This is another reason to backup your database, it's not that it can't fail you.
Smart admin has copy and copy-of-copy of his database, and this can happen just randomly, without admins failing.