2023 TF2 / Source Engine Asset Leak - the image of a coconut that randomly got added to tf2's code and made the game completely unable to execute if it was deleted

I appreciate that we got one step closer to the truth but still have to hold on to that falsehood that it crashes the game if it's deleted.

It doesn't. It's just a texture file. If it gets deleted it's just replaced with the "no texture" placeholder file. It wasn't "repurposed" to be a coffee bean for the Fresh Brewed Victory taunt, it was added specifically for that taunt. This was not something only discovered in the leak. This was known years beforehand.

Same thing happens in carpentry. In both cases it's called a load bearing nut.