>This recursion ends when Minecraft hits a hard limit, which by luck results in a yellow block being spawned instead of a red one.

This reminds me of the old update suppression glitch (https://mcdf.wiki.gg/wiki/Java_Edition:Update_Suppression), or the trickier population suppression (https://mcdf.wiki.gg/wiki/Java_Edition:Population_Suppressio...) which can leave the game engine in a glitched state where blocks fall instantly.